Camp Eden
by sphinx005
Summary: FINISHED! The 3rd and final story in the Camp series. Please read Camp Duck and Camp Maine prior to reading this otherwise it won't make sense. I own nothing.
1. Chapter 1

**Sorry for the wait, I lost my D3 DVD and had no hope of finding it but then flicking through the movie channels on the TV on the weekend I saw that D3 was playing so I watched it on that instead. Thanks to all who reveiewed the other two fics. For the newbies, I suggest you read CAMP DUCK and CAMP MAINE before reading this, it'll mame more sense then.**

* * *

**CHAPTER ONE**

Here we were back together again. Standing on a podium in front of people wearing our Ducks jerseys and listening to people rattle on about how proud they were of us.

"I'd like to introduce Mr Gordon Bombay"

I snapped back to attention trying to ignore Portman's breath on my neck.

Bombay started going on about how gifted we were and the story about how the Bash Brothers, the Flying V, something called the "Oreo Line" and our team in general was born.  
Then he decided to tell everyone about the pranks, adding that he still hasn't forgotten about those eggs. By the way Portman looked at me I'm guessing he had no idea what Bombay was talking about either. Must've been a District Five thing.

I turned to look up at Fulton who was standing on the opposite side of the podium and he grinned down at me. I'd only been back a day and I already couldn't get enough of that smile. Jeez I'm such a _girl_.

Bombay wrapped up his speech and introduced a funny looking guy with glasses as Dean Buckley, the Dean of Eden Hall and Bombay's old biology teacher.

He also blew hot air up our asses going on about how we're truly a 'remarkable bunch of athletes', etc, etc. I honestly had stopped listening. I was focusing more on Bombay who was standing next to a red-haired woman who looked eerily like Charlie.

What happened to Miss MacKay I wonder?

I turned my attention back to the Dean and almost burst out laughing when he put an arm around Charlie. Poor Charlie looked slightly horrified.

Can't say I blame him. That dude honestly looks creepy.

I could see Bombay and the red-haired lady whispering together and they both looked like they had some big secret. Great! Just what the world needs now, even more surprises from Coach Bombay.

The speech finally ended and after what seemed like a million and fifty photos and an aching jaw from too much smiling, we were finally free.

"Charlie can I talk to you for a moment?" Bombay interrupted our little gathering.

"Um okay" Charlie looked as confused as the rest of us.

"Portman check this out!" Connie pulled up her sleeve to reveal an ugly purple bruise on her upper arm.

"How the hell did you get that?" Portman asked a little concerned. He could be way too overprotective sometimes.

"Stopped one of Fulton's slap shots with my arm. Hurt like a bitch" Connie replied.

What had happened to the sweet girly Connie that existed like three weeks ago? Ever since she'd become best buds with Dean Portman, all her girlyness had flown out the window.  
"Awesome!" Portman was satisfied that the source of the bruise wasn't some asshole giving her a hard time so he moved closer for a better look.

"How've you been Jules? Did you miss me?" Fulton had come up behind me and wrapped his arms around my middle as he kissed me on the cheek.

"I certainly didn't miss seeing _that_!" Goldberg half grinned, half grimaced as he pointed us out.

"Now, now Goldie, you're just bitter that I got the hottest girl on the team" Fulton shot back.

"Hey what about me?" Connie pouted.

"Sorry Cons, I only have eyes for Julie" Fulton replied and I couldn't help but laugh.

"It's alright Connie, I think you're hot" Portman cackled and Connie grinned.

Yeah right, there's _nothing _going on there Connie.

"Not as hot as me though" Goldberg had taken his t-shirt and gathered it in a knot above his navel, giving the Ducks an eyeful of his belly as he struck a supermodel pose.

"GOLDBERG!" the Ducks laughed. The overweight goalie had certainly come out of his shell since the Goodwill Games.

"Julie you're still staying at my house tonight aren't you?" Connie came up to me when the laughter at Goldberg's antics had died down.

"Yeah but I'm moving into my new dorm tomorrow" I told her.

Connie had graciously offered me a place to crash at her house for the night since I couldn't move into the dorms until tomorrow. I'd told her a little about what had happened back in Maine and needless to say, she was more than sympathetic.

I must admit, I like this side of Connie. When it was "Connie and Guy" she was slightly neurotic and obsessive. Now she was way more mellow and fun. Who'd have thought Dean Portman would be such a good influence on her.

"Cool, me and Portman can help you move" Connie said before crash tackling Portman. She'd actually managed to pin him to the ground too. I guess it wouldn't have been that hard since she did take both legs out from under him.

"They look kinda cutesy" Averman nudged me.

"I wouldn't suggest that to either of them though if you wanna keep your face the way it is" I suggested. Averman wasn't that bad. He was kinda cool when he shut up for more than three seconds.

"Duly noted. So you and Fulton still the happy couple?" he was starting to sound a little like Oprah.

"We sure are Aves, get your own goalie" Fulton interrupted.

"Yoo hoo, Goldberg!" Averman put on a high voice making us all laugh again.

This group was a far cry from the less than happy campers we were a few weeks ago. Maybe we were starting to be a team again.

"Jules are you moving into the dorms tomorrow?" Russ asked me. Ken, Luis and Dwayne were right behind him.

"Yeah are you guys?" I asked glad that I'd at least have some company on campus.

"Yeah do you wanna meet up somewhere first and we can all help each other out?" Russ suggested.

"Sure Russ, that'd be great!" I tried not to laugh at his get up. He looked a little like 'Huggy-Bear' from Starsky and Hutch in that suit. I'm guessing it belonged to his father in the 70s.

Oh well who am I to judge?

The good mood was ruined upon Charlie's return. He looked extremely pissed about something.

"What's up your ass Spazzway?" Russ asked. He was probably the only one who could get away with that right now. Aside from Fulton or Portman of course.

"Team meeting NOW" Charlie was very angry.

He led us over to a secluded spot by the lake.

"So what's going on?" Adam asked. You could tell he was intrigued.

"What's going on is that we're being dumped in a preppy school" Charlie exploded.

"So? That's nothing new. We have the team and coach" Russ began.

"NO! we have the team, but no coach. Bombay's bailing on us guys" Charlie revealed the bad news.

"WHAT?" several of us squawked.

I couldn't believe it. After everything Bombay had been through with us, he was bailing?

Looks like we're in for an interesting time at Eden Hall then.

* * *


	2. Chapter 2

Over the next day, the out of state Ducks, including myself of course, settled into our new dorms. It looked like I had one to myself which was a good thing. The Minnesota Ducks came and helped and it was just like the Goodwill Games again with everyone getting along and a LOT of Bombay bashing.

It was the first day of school and I was walking around the campus with Russ, Dwayne, Luis and Kenny and Russ was complaining about Eden Hall being "low on the brothers quotient'.

I had to agree, I hadn't seen a black face in the crowd as yet. Well aside from Russ that is.

"Hey I wanna know who this Coach Orion is. My dad said that if I didn't like him then I could come right home" I said changing the subject. My dad had said that but we both knew he didn't really mean it. Not that I cared of course, I didn't exactly want to spend my high school years in Maine.

"That's nice, my dad said he'd kick my butt if I messed up this scholarship" Russ smiled sweetly at me. He was such a smart ass but he was a cool guy all the same. He'd grown from an annoying little snot into a smart assed, trash talker who was actually pretty damn funny.

I tuned back into the conversation in time to hear Dwayne say that he'd heard Coach Orion had punched out a fan.

"I heard he was Buddhist like Kung Fu or Richard Gere" I replied. I though Buddhists were all about the 'zen' which makes it seem unlikely he punched out his coach or a fan.

"Kung Fu wasn't a Buddhist he was a Traverse Monk" Kenny piped up. That kid sure was smart. Kenny had grown up a little too. His hair was longer and he was a little taller, give him a few years and he'll have the girls chasing him all over.

Which reminds me, any of these preppy girls go ANYWHERE near Fulton and I'm gonna have to open a few cans of whoop ass. Hmmm, possessive much?

"Is that like the Old Kung Fu or the Adventures of the New Kung Fu?" Russ asked and I laughed.

Ken just raised an eyebrow at him and Dwayne scoffed "Y'all watch too much TV"

"Shoot, that's the safest thing to do in my hood" Russ replied eyeing up the school bulletin board. I took a quick peek and noticed a few hot pink flyers announcing a school dance.

Oh great! This school is one of those that just LOVE their dances. Me, I'd rather blow it off and go have some fun with my friends.

"Come on guys we'd better get to this assembly" Luis had his eye fixed on the cheerleaders who were entering the auditorium ahead of us. I shook my head. Obviously he was over Connie.

Speaking of Connie, I wonder where the Minnesota Ducks are? They should be here by now.

"Come on, lets sit here" Dwayne pointed to a row of seats in front of what looked like to be jocks.

Since there weren't any other seats available together we sat down.

Immediately the jocks started on us.

"Hey you know what? You Ducks don't belong here" a voice that was even more obnoxious than my brother John sneered.

"What?" Russ turned around hell bent on murder.

"Easy Russ" Dwayne warned. I turned around to see the owner of the voice was a snotty nosed preppy with dark hair and his fat mate who looked dumber than dog shit.

"They probably just don't know who we are. Hi! I'm Dwayne, we're the new hockey team and you are?" he said with a big grin as he extended his hand.

Dwayne, sweetie, this ain't Texas. No one wants us here.

And the Dumb as Dog Shit boy proceeded to place his gum in Dwayne's palm.

The snotty nosed preppy spoke "Varsity, the ONLY hockey team"

I could feel my temper rising.

"You know my brother lost his JV slot when they brought you yo-yos in here" he continued.

Yo-Yos? What did he think this was, Pleasantville?

"He probably wasn't good enough" I turned around and glared.

I quickly glanced at Russ and saw him give me a smile of encouragement.

"You see that's my dad. He's gonna get the Board to revoke your scholarships. You wait and see" Snot-face leaned in towards me. He definitely overdid it on the cologne.

"That's your dad? Nice outfit, did it come with a yacht?" Russ retorted using the same sweet and sarcastic smile he used on me earlier.

I couldn't help but laugh and Dwayne, Russ, Kenny and Luis joined in.

Then the Dumb Boy makes a big deal out of laughing stupidly. He's even stupider than I first anticipated.

Before any further fights could break out the assembly started and Dean Buckley started his speech. The others had better get here soon.

I rolled my eyes as he praised the Varsity team for their consecutive state championships and the team behind us started cheering quite loudly. Some people are so up themselves

.  
"We must not shy away from the shrinking sceptre..." the Dean continued.

"What's he saying Russ?" Dwayne asked a little confused. I couldn't really blame him though, the Dean was using big words that he obviously needed a Thesaurus for.

"Something about a shrinking sphincter" Russ replied straight-faced.

I watched as Dwayne repeated what Russ had said to himself and then nodded like he understood.

Russ and I had a little giggle amongst ourselves. It was pretty funny.

Then the Dean got around to introducing us to the school.

He started on the remarkable group of young athletes train again and when he got around to announcing us as the gold medal winners at the Junior Goodwill Games I saw the curtain behind him rustle and the unmistakable sound of Goldberg falling down.

Sure enough the curtain was ripped off of its brackets and fell onto a group of people. I glanced at Russ and we grinned. We knew exactly who it was.

The curtain was lifted to reveal the Minnesota Ducks in a heap on the floor. The students started laughing and I covered my face as I laughed.

"Hi" Charlie spoke. I looked up to see Fulton's face turning bright red.

"We're the Ducks!" he announced making the entire student body howl with laughter.

"I guess they needed to make a real entrance" Russ laughed. He couldn't quite believe what he was seeing. I don't think anyone could.

The Dean looked livid.

"I would like to see the JV hockey team in my office. Everyone else is dismissed" he said.

"Trust them to get us into trouble in the first five minutes!" Russ whispered.

"I know" I agreed.

The Ducks had arrived at Eden Hall!

* * *

**AN - the dialogue isn't exactly right but I'm going from memory and we all know what was said in the movie. For those confused, Dumb Boy means Cole and Snot-face means Rick. Obviously they don't know their names as yet since its their first encounter with the Varsity team. Thanks for your reviews on the last chapter.**


	3. Chapter 3

As we entered the Dean's office I noticed one thing I hadn't noticed before. Where was Portman? I knew it was like him to be late but to miss the first day of school? I guess I'll just ask Fulton later.

The Dean hadn't arrived yet so we took it upon ourselves to look around.

"Man Charlie, this is not a good start to our year" Ken was worried about his scholarship. Maybe he'd believed Snot-face when he said his dad was going to get the Board to revoke them.

"Don't worry Kenny, these preppies aren't going to do anything to us" Charlie was cocky.

Yeah right, he obviously didn't see the Dean's face when they broke his curtain.

"Hey check it out, antsville" Charlie led us over to a giant glass case with an ant village where we leaned in to have a good look.

"You can learn a lot from these Brazilian Fire Ants" Dean Buckley interrupted us and we all scurried back startled.

He then explained how they work.

There were worker ants, the backbone of the society.

"Much like here at Eden Hall except you are the worker ants, the backbone of the societal structure"

"And you're the Queen?" Russ asked cheekily and we all stifled laughs.

Man that kid had some balls.

"Hmm" the Dean waived him off and let us go to our first class.

I really wish he had've kept us in his office.

"Every Monday you'll have a practice quiz, every Friday you'll have a real quiz and any time I feel like if you'll have a surprise quiz or exam"

Every single one of us was staring open mouthed at her. Was she for real?

Fortunately since it was the first day she didn't give us a "practice quiz" since there would be nothing to test us on, yet.

Instead she had us read the entire first chapter of our text books ready for the practice quiz tomorrow. This is going to be hard.

Fulton was waiting for me outside the classroom when the bell went. We checked our schedules and grinned when we saw that we had American History together next.

Our enthusiasm was short lived when we arrived and found that the teacher had assigned our seats and Fulton was way up the front with Charlie and I was up the back with Adam.

I nearly pointed out to Adam that he looked ridiculous in his sweater vest and tie but held off when I realised that most of the other students wore the same thing. I guess it was the rest of us Ducks that looked ridiculous to them.

Oh well, jeans and a shirt is way more comfortable.

The teacher picked up a really thick book and placed a stuffed toy dwarf on top of it.

"It goes that the dwarf rides on the shoulders of the giant throughout history"

I glanced at Adam and he looked back at me. We exchanged a look of 'what the hell?'.

The teacher made his way towards Fulton's desk.

"But if the dwarf forgets his place" he said before slamming the dwarf onto Fulton's desk and ramming the book on top of it.

Fulton looked taken aback. I think we all were.

"History is a giant. Get ready to ride" he said and Fulton raised his eyebrows at him before glancing at Charlie.

Is it just me or does Charlie always look pissed off these days?

Finally it was time for lunch.

Goldberg, Averman, Charlie, Fulton and I made our way down the hallway towards the cafeteria.

I saw Luis out of the corner of my eye and he didn't look very happy about something.

What else is new? Everyone seemed to be wearing that look lately.

Connie was still bitter about Portman not coming as was Fulton. Charlie was extremely bitter about Bombay bailing on us, Guy was bitter about the break up with Connie and Adam just looked plain stressed about all of the homework we'd received after the first HALF of a day.

It was ridiculous.

"Hey Ken!" I saw Ken emerging from the cafeteria. He was wearing a pissed off look too.

Geez was it contagious?

Not for me. I couldn't help but smile when Fulton grabbed my hand as we walked down the hall and entered the cafeteria.

Dwayne, Guy, Connie and Russ had scored us a table that was far away from those Varsity idiots.

It was then I noticed that Charlie had slipped away and was nowhere to be seen. Oh well, his loss if he missed lunch.

I sat next to Fulton and Connie immediately flocked to my other side. Seriously there was no pun intended there.

"Can you believe we have practice straight after school?" she blurted out checking our hockey schedule.

"Let me see that" I said moving closer to her to get a look. I was more looking for when our first game was.

"What's this JV/Varsity showdown thing?" I asked pointing to a scheduled game a few weeks from now.

"I dunno. Hey guys what's this JV/Varsity showdown?" Connie drew the attention of the rest of the Ducks.

"We play the Varsity team. Its an Eden Hall tradition" Adam replied taking a bite of his sandwich.

"Great, those goons are four times bigger than us" Ken complained.

"So were Iceland and we beat them" Dwayne pointed out.

"Yeah!" the rest of us agreed feeling a little better.

"I say bring it on!" Goldberg replied.

"Hey guys" Charlie had reappeared and he looked extremely happy.

"So what's with the goofy grin Spazzway?" Connie asked cheekily.

"I met a girl" Charlie replied.

"Ooooh Charlie met a girl!" the Ducks teased and taunted him.

Charlie was too busy in a dreamland to notice.

Must be some girl.

We finished our lunches and talked a bit more about how weird it was to be in high school and the bell rang.

"See y'all at practice" Dwayne said as we all left the cafeteria looking forward to getting out on the ice again.


	4. Chapter 4

Practice was the one thing we were all looking forward to after such a disastrous day.

I guess if our classes were anything to go by, we should have known practice would be no picnic.

To cap it off we had a little run-in with Varsity which almost started a brawl between Fulton and the blond 'dumb guy' from the assembly that morning after their captain who turned out to be the snot faced kid went to grab Charlie.

Their coach told their team to leave the ice and we were left to it.

Of course there was no sign of our new coach.

"How about a little cowboy round up to get started?" Charlie nudged Russ.

"Hey Charlie shouldn't we wait for the new coach before we start messing around?" Connie asked seriously.

I saw her point though. Who knew what this Coach Orion was like.

"It's called Duck hockey Connie remember? He'll have to get used to it sooner or later" Charlie goaded Connie on and she grinned.

Charlie had a point too. There were 12 of us and only 1 of him.

"Well come Cowboy" Charlie nudged Dwayne and Dwayne grinned.

"YEE HAW!"

We all scattered with Connie, Fulton and I staying close together. Well we stayed together until Dwayne started gunning for Fulton.

"Sorry babe you're on your own" I laughed as Connie grabbed onto the back of my pads as we skated around in a wide circle.

"Oh you'd better watch out girls!" Dwayne teased as he swung his rope menacingly.

We giggled and kept skating as Dwayne turned and aimed for Fulton.

"Aw he got Fulton!" we heard Charlie say in laughter.

Dwayne grinned and started after Charlie.

Connie and I laughed at Averman who had hidden himself in the goal.

"Woo you'd better watch out Conway, I'm a comin'!" Dwayne let his lasso go and it got Charlie. He pulled and Charlie fell onto the ice skidding on his front until he came to a stop directly in front of a man who we assumed was our new coach.

Oh boy he did not look happy.

"My name is Coach Orion. You can call me "Coach" or "Coach Orion"" he started.

Charlie had gotten to his feet and extended his hand, minus his glove.

"Well you can call me Charlie" he said cheekily.

Orion was not impressed.

"Must be what that C stands for on your jersey. Because it sure doesn't stand for 'captain'"

Ouch. That's gotta hurt.

"Hey Bombay gave him that C" Goldberg spoke up.

"And I respect that but that was the past. This is my team and I'll be selecting the captain" Orion announced.

"Wait a minute, you're the rookie here. We've all been together for four years" Charlie argued.

Erm, no. District FIVE or what's left of it have been together for four years, WE as a group have only been together for a few months.

"Laps now Conway" Orion wasn't going to tolerate any back chatting.

As mean as its gonna sound, its nice to have a coach who doesn't have favourites.

"How many COACH Orion" Charlie asked looking very annoyed.

"I don't recall saying" Orion replied not even looking at him as Charlie skated off and began taking laps around the rink.

"I've seen your tapes, I know you can score goals, I'm just not sure if you can stop them" Orion began his little 'pep talk'.

"HEY!" Goldberg cut in clearly offended.

Orion shot him a look.

"Sorry sir" Goldberg immediately retracted.

I stole a glance at Fulton and I must admit I've never, ever seen him look so mad. Not even when Portman was annoying him did he look that mad.

"Is what? Starts with a "W"" Coach Orion was asking us.

Uh oh! What was the question again?

"To WIN COACH ORION SIR!" Averman bellowed and Orion looked alarmed.

"No" he replied and Russ cracked a laugh.

"To WORK!" Orion corrected.

Crap, it sounds like he's gonna be a Captain Blood.

I hate high school.

When we finally entered the locker room two and a half hours later I felt like I was going to die. Sure Captain Blood practices were slightly worse but at least Bombay had eased up on us when he finally got his marbles back.

"Grab a shovel and bury me here" Goldberg sat opposite me and laid himself out across the bench.

"We gotta what? Starts with a "W"!" Charlie entered the locker room and started making fun of the coach.

"Wussies" Averman supplied tiredly. Wow if he's too tired to make more of a joke then it must have been a hard practice.

"That's right wussies on offence and"

"DEFENSE, DEFENSE, DEFENSE!" Russ started hammering into a locker.

"Eden Hall's policy is to maintain a C Average" Orion's voice cut into the room and we all jumped.

Jeez he was like the night crawler.

"I believe that is a bad rule" he said much to the delight of everyone else.

Maybe he wasn't so bad after all.

"Alright, go coach!" Goldberg had managed to sit up.

"I don't want any C players on my team so its B's or better otherwise you'll be riding the pine pony" Orion tacked something to the notice board before making his exit.

Goldberg's smile had faded.

"You have 15 minutes to clear the locker room after each practice. You have homework to do" he said with a little smirk.

15 minutes? Is he kidding? Not only do Connie and I have to find somewhere to shower away from the boys but does he really think that 10 boys can shower and get dressed in 15 minutes?

"And one more thing" he added as he got to the door.

Great what now?

"Stay away from the varsity team until we play them in the JV/Varsity showdown. Do I make myself clear?" he asked.

"Yes sir" we said and he left.

"15 minutes? Man I cannot move" Russ said.

I couldn't blame him. Fulton gave me a small smile from his spot further down the bench.

"Hey guys look he posted our positions" Connie noticed what the paper was on the board.

Everyone except me and Goldberg raced to see what Orion had posted.

"This is just great, I play left side not right" Fulton spat before coming to sit next to me.

I placed a hand on his shoulder sympathetically. At least he'll get to play I'm just the back up goalie remember?

"Third line? Man that's a major diss" Russ wasn't happy either.

"Hey I'm not even posted!" Adam cried and we all stared at him.

What did he mean he wasn't posted? He was one of our best players.

"Yes you are look, Adam Banks, Third Line Center. For Varsity?" Connie pointed out.

The locker room fell silent.

"I made Varsity?" Adam didn't look pleased.

Shit! Now we've lost another Duck on our first day.

"You see that's what I like about being Goalie, you always know where you stand. I just mind my own business and take my position between the pipes"

"You're riding the pine pony pal" Averman was at the board and informed Goldberg.

"Ha, ha very funny" Goldberg looked a little worried.

"Its true man, Julie's 1 you're 2" Averman told him.

I'm the starter? Wow maybe Coach Orion does know his shit after all.

"I'm back up?" Goldberg glared at me before rushing towards the roster.

"Congratulations baby" Fulton whispered to me and kissed my sweaty forehead.

"What am I chopped liver?" Goldberg was still chucking a hissy fit as he resumed getting changed.

"Hey Guy who's 'captain tibid?" Dwayne asked staring intently at the roster.

Tibid? What the hell does that mean?

"No that's 'to be determined'" Guy explained gently. He certainly changed his attitude towards Dwayne since the camp.

"Oh I see. No wait I don't see. That's your job Charlie" Dwayne looked at our now ex-captain.

Charlie looked mad as hell.

Great! Charlie had already been sporting attitude and it looked like it was about to get worse.

I just wonder what our first game's gonna be like now that he's completely rearranged our line ups. And without Adam?

I guess the WARRIORS have arrived then.


	5. Chapter 5

"This is SO UNFAIR!" Connie screamed for what seemed like the millionth time since practice ended as she kicked a random stone on the sidewalk. We were heading to her house for dinner at Mrs Moreau's insistence.

"I know" I replied sympathetically for the millionth time resisting all urge to roll my eyes. There was only so much you could handle and I was fast approaching my limit.

"The ONLY thing that makes sense is Orion putting you in as the starter. I love Goldie but even the blind can see you're a better goalie" Connie said changing the subject slightly for a minute.

"Except Bombay" I replied and immediately clammed up. Connie was an original Duck. I could get away with bashing Bombay to Portman, Ken, Dwayne, Russ and Luis, they understood his bias ways but with the original Ducks, they had no clue.

"Yeah well Bombay doesn't know everything" Connie replied a little harshly. Wow, had the Ducks former coach really pissed off the team or what?

"So what's been eating Charlie lately? I mean besides the obvious" I quickly changed subjects not wanting to put my foot in it completely.

"Who knows, he's been like this ever since Bombay said he's staying in LA. If I know Charlie, its gonna get a lot worse before it gets better" Connie warned and I couldn't help but wonder whether something had happened over the summer.

"We had a fight when Jesse left. It nearly broke the team up, that's why Charlie's all broody all of a sudden" Connie looked at me as if she'd just read my mind.

Whoah, that's kinda scary when you think about it.

"Oh, Fulton never mentioned anything" I replied stupidly. Like Fulton would tell me something like that anyway.

"Fulton took Charlie's side. He was pretty much the only one who did. Charlie acted like an ass and he knows it" Connie explained.

That just answered a few questions for me that were brewing around in my head.

"So what was the fight about?" I asked wondering if I really wanted to know.

"Jesse leaving mostly and whether or not we should get one of the original District 5 Ducks back. Majority of us said no, we have our team with all of you guys but Charlie argued that we could use more original Ducks and Fulton agreed. Besides, our roster's already full, well it was before Portman bailed. Stupid asshole" Connie said sourly.

I was glad that most of the team didn't want to replace any of us 'outsider' Ducks. Still it kinda hurt to learn that Fulton had taken Charlie's side on the matter.

We arrived at the Moreau house and were immediately greeted by Mrs Moreau asking how our first day went.

"Fine" Connie lied. It had been far from fine.

"Have you made any new friends?" Mrs Moreau asked.

"Yeah the Varsity team" Connie replied and I tried not to laugh. Those guys were the furthest away from ever being our friends.

"That's nice dear, is spaghetti okay for dinner?" Mrs Moreau asked.

We both nodded.

"Yes mom I'm starving!" Connie replied and I could feel my own stomach growling.

At least Orion's practices gave us an appetite.

* * *

The next day at school was pretty much like the first. Students everywhere didn't give us the time of day and we were stuck on our own.

Goldberg surprised meat lunch by handing me a tray full of desserts and congratulated me on being number 1.

I eyed him suspiciously. Was there more than he was letting on?

Then he explained that in order to compete at this level you needed a lot of energy.

I guess he did have a lot more experience in high competition games than I did so I took his word for it. Hey at least I get a free lunch out of it.

"Where's Fulton?" Connie asked me and it was then that I noticed that my boyfriend was missing.

Wow, what did that say about our relationship then? It hadn't been the same since the camp.

I simply shrugged, I honestly had no clue where he was.

"He's off somewhere with Charlie and Russ" Averman helpfully informed.

"Why am I not surprised?" Guy spoke up. He obviously felt a little resentment that he wasn't invited on whatever it was the boys were doing.

I just rolled my eyes. Figures.

"Oh wait there he is" Averman pointed towards the Varsity table where Charlie, Fulton and Russ were holed up by that big goon, who's name I found out was Cole and the Captain, Rick Riley.

I could see Charlie stifling laughter and wondered what the hell was going on.

Connie and I both watched in awe as Cole pulled a pile of horse shit out of the brown paper bag and sniffed it.

"Oh that is nasty!" Connie exclaimed.

Charlie then clapped Cole's shoulder and said something before Russ, Fulton and himself all ran for the door.

Varsity immediately took off after them, as did the cheerleaders.

"What are we waiting for, lets go!" Dwayne yelled and the Ducks also followed.

"If they get us all detention I'm going to kill them!" Connie said to me as we ran past the cafeteria doors and out to the lawn.

"Um I think we need to find them first" I told her upon seeing the Varsity team standing around scratching their heads trying to work out where the hell Charlie and co had gone.

"Guys, this way, quick before they see us" Luis grabbed my arm and dragged us around the corner of a building.

We rounded a few more corners until we came face to face with a laughing Charlie, Fulton and Russ all out of breath.

"Hey guys, rough day?" Averman asked slyly.

The trio looked up and grinned.

And Fulton frowned when he saw Luis holding onto my arm.

Luis let go of me and stepped to the side. He obviously saw the Bash Brother's discomfort at him touching his girlfriend.

Fulton moved to me and placed his arm around my shoulders.

I decided to let it go this time but if it happened again I will definitely be chewing him a new one, I don't want to end up like Connie and Guy.

"So tell me Charlie, what was with the horse turds?" Goldberg asked.

The rest of us tuned in for the response.

"Brownies, serves them right for messing with Kenny" Charlie said.

"Messing with Ken?" Connie asked.

"They stole his lunch so I thought I'd give them something nutritious and satisfying" Charlie said sarcastically.

All eyes turned to Ken who looked almost ashamed he couldn't stand up for himself.

"Thanks guys" he said in an almost whisper.

"No problem Kenny, Ducks Fly Together" Charlie reminded us of our little catch-phrase.

"You know I think Dean Buckley saved your asses back there" Connie spoke up to get the attention off of Ken at which he looked extremely grateful.

"Why do you say that?" Russ asked.

"He stalled the rest of the school for a few seconds thus allowing you to get away. Relax, I don't think he knew what was going on" Connie laughed when she saw Charlie's horrified expression.

"And if you three get us all detention, then I"LL KILL YOU!" Connie added for good measure.

The bell rang signalling the end of lunch.

"Well only a few more hours to go and then practice with the monster" Charlie reminded us of our upcoming practice after school.

"Oh yay!" we all said sarcastically.

Fulton insisted on walking me to class. He was probably feeling guilty for ditching me at lunch but I wasn't complaining. Having Fulton around was better than walking by myself, especially if the Varsity now had a reason to be out for Duck blood.

"Aw look two Duckies sitting in a tree – K-I-S-S-I-N-G!" a snide voice was heard behind us.

We spun around to see Cole looking as ugly as ever. He was with their goalie and another boy I'd never seen before.

"Wow! Good one, what are you? Like two?" I snapped not in the mood for his stupid comments right at that second.

"Like no, I'm sixteen" Cole thought he was being funny.

"Does this look like a face that cares?" I replied rolling my eyes for effect.

I glanced at the goalie and noticed he was trying his hardest not to laugh. He caught my eye and gave me a smile.

Not wanting to see what would happen if Fulton had've seen that I grabbed my boyfriend and dragged him down the hallway before he started beating up on them.

"They are such jerks!" I complained.

"I know babe, I wish Portman were here, we could beat them all" Fulton told me kissing my temple.

"I'll see you at practice" I told him when we arrived at my classroom.

"I'm looking forward to it" he said softly with a grin before heading to his own class.

* * *

Practice was even worse than the last one, well for me anyway. I felt so sick.

"Work those legs Gaffney!" Orion barked at me. I knew I was lagging but I felt like I was going to hurl.

"Come on, where's your energy!" he yelled.

I came to a stop. I knew what was coming.

"I think I'm gonna ….." I had only just made it to the bench when my 'free lunch' decided to pay me a little visit.

"Ha, ha, one cupcake over the line Catlady!" I heard Goldberg's taunting voice behind me as he gently smacked my legs with his stick.

If I wasn't in the middle of throwing my guts up, I would have beaten him senseless with my hockey stick and gutted him with my sharpened skates. Morbid I know, but I just realised he had done it on purpose. He was trying to get back to being number one again.

"I can't skate for this nazi!" Charlie complained.

"Then skate for us Charlie, the Ducks" Fulton's voice was getting closer.

"Okay Fulton, get low, bend your knees" Charlie started coaching as they sailed by me.

Hello? Over here? Your girlfriend's sick Fulton!

Men!

"Julie the Cat! What's the matter you eat a fur ball?" Coach Orion asked.

Ha, ha, you are one funny man. Note the sarcasm.

"Ha, Ha! Fur ball, that's a good one coach" Goldberg was sucking up big time.

"Just get in the net Goldberg" Orion snapped. He sounded like he wasn't happy about it.

"Me? Sure Coach" Goldberg sounded smug.

Ooo how I'd love to wipe the look off of his face.

When my stomach had finally emptied and I felt fine enough to skate, practice was almost over.

It was rather eventful I'd say.

Charlie got sent to the bench for backchatting.

Averman took Coach literally when he said 'freeze' and ended up on the ice with a bruised butt.

Fulton was off somewhere with the pixies and not really concentrating.

Connie and Guy were having issues and were checking each other viciously.

Goldberg was upset Coach took him out of goal once I was well enough to return to the ice.

Dwayne was his normal cheery self.

Ken was really quiet. He wasn't acting like the little Bash Brother anymore and it was really disturbing.

Even Russ was quiet.

We cleared the locker room out in ten minutes and no one said anything to each other.

All I wanted to do was get back to my dorm and sleep the rest of nausea off.

And that's exactly what I did.

* * *

**A/N - sorry for the wait, I've made this extra long to make up for it. Thanks for all of your reviews.**


	6. Chapter 6

"Hi Julie are you feeling better?" Connie caught up to me before our first class.

"Yeah but keep Goldberg away from me, I'm going to kill him" I replied.

"He was here a minute ago but he saw you and ran. Stupid wuss" Connie grinned.

I smiled too. It was nice to know the boy was scared of me.

"I don't know about you but I can't wait for our first game tonight" Connie said excitedly.

"Me neither" I replied truthfully. It would be the first time I was the starting goalie.

"Are you nervous or excited about starting?" Connie asked and for the second time in as many days she read my mind.

"A little of both. But don't tell anyone. I have a reputation to uphold" I said in my best snooty voice.

"Reputation my ass" Connie grinned.

"Ladies" a voice interrupted us and we spun around to see it was Varsity's goalie.

Great! Now what?

"What do you want?" Connie asked coolly.

"Nothing, just wanted to wish you girls luck for your game tonight" he said with a smile.

Connie and I looked at each other warily. Was this some kind of trick?

"Look I know Rick and Cole are jerks but we're not all like that. All I want to do is wish you luck and now I have so I'll see you later" he said politely before walking off.

"I think someone likes you" Connie teased.

"Oh shut up!" I replied slapping her arm.

"Don't worry, I won't tell Fulton" Connie teased further.

"There's nothing to tell anyway" I said before I sauntered off down the hallway leaving Connie puzzled.

* * *

The day went by uneventful and before any of us knew it, it was time for our game.

"Hey Catlady I brought an extra sandwich if you need extra energy for the game" Goldberg taunted me.

"Goldberg you have three seconds to shut up or I'll do it for you" I hissed.

"Or I will" Fulton butted in.

I knew he was just trying to protect me so I resisted all urge to snap at him.

"Okay, shutting up" Goldberg said and went back to suiting up.

"You know I'd expect Banks to at least wish us luck but no, he's too good for us now" Charlie said bitterly.

"Charlie you know as well as I do that Varsity keep him on a tight leash. They don't want him telling us anything he shouldn't be" Connie stuck up for our absent friend.

"Like what Cons?" Charlie challenged.

"Like their plays, who's the better players, who are the weaker players. That kind of thing." Connie explained rationally.

She did have a point. I remember being extremely pissed after our first game when we learned that Coach Stansson had done his homework on us.

"Whatever" Charlie wasn't really buying it but who cares. I'm really sick to death of his attitude lately.

"Team lets go, the ice isn't going to wait" Coach Orion stuck his head in the locker room indicating it was time for us to get to the game.

We were silent as we made our way to the ice. I must say it felt really weird wearing these white Eden Hall Warrior jerseys instead of the Duck ones.

"Come on team huddle up. Hands in" Coach Orion put his hand out.

"Quack, quack, quack, quack" we started.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold up. Cut that out. Go team on one, ready" Orion stopped us.

Was he kidding? We were Ducks not Warriors.

"Go team" we all said unenthusiastically.

"Go team how original" Charlie complained to Fulton.

"Get your head in the game Charlie" Averman scolded.

"Come on Charlie lets do this!" Fulton said excitedly.

I gave up on waiting for any words of encouragement from Fulton who seemed to forget that this was technically my first game playing with the Ducks and made my way to the goal where I did my usual stick slap and glove raise to get ready for the battle ahead.

Some battle, the puck hasn't even reached the Bears zone yet and we were four goals up.

"I'm right here! Would somebody take a shot at me? I'm SO BORED!" I exclaimed to no one in particular as I skated lazily between the pipes.

I watched as the Ducks obtained another goal.

"Yay" I cheered half heartedly. Wow if this was what being first string was all about then Goldie could have it.

No wait, I really don't mean that.

Charlie took the face off and Fulton managed to get his shot in.

I can't believe the Blake player was actually dumb enough to stick his hand out to try and stop it.

"Fulton scored, Fulton scored, I am really bored. Fulton's great, Fulton's great, a year ago he couldn't even skaaaate" I sang to myself.

The buzzer for the end of the second period sounded and we were up 9 to nothing.

Woo hoo, go the shut out!

"How are you doing?" Fulton asked as we walked back to the locker rooms.

"Fine, its not like I've been over exerting myself or anything" I joked.

"Sorry Julie, that's what happens when we're on the SHUT OUT!" Charlie butted in.

"YEAH!" the team cheered.

I faked a cheery smile when all I wanted to do was snot the little asshole for butting in. Couldn't he get the hint that Fulton and I were having a private conversation?

Coach Orion gave us a little pep talk and we were on our merry way back to the ice.

I almost told Goldberg to take the goal but decided against it. I wanted to make the jerk suffer for trying to make me fat.

The third period was nothing like the last two.

The Blake Bears seemed to have had some complete make over because all of a sudden they were playing like a real hockey team.

"Oh shit!" I exclaimed out loud when I saw the puck coming towards me and there was absolutely no one on defence.

As much as I tried to concentrate they managed to score on me.

Damn it!

"Come on where's the D?" I asked the Ducks who had finally arrived at the goal just in time to see it go in.

Charlie shot me a filthy look and I matched it. That little punk wasn't going to intimidate me.

He shook his head and skated off.

The rest of the period was pretty much the same.

I had managed to save a few goals only to have them slapped back at me and into the goal whilst the rest of the Ducks stood around scratching their heads (well not literally, but you get my drift).

Orion was right, we couldn't play defence to save our lives.

Charlie's temper was getting more and more out of control. He was mighty happy the first period when he scored three goals in a row and started showing off to the girl in the

stands but now he was out for blood.

The final straw for him was when Blake got another goal, bringing the total up to 9 to 8 – our way. I had my back turned when he slammed his stick into the goal post snapping it

clean in half.

"What the fuck Charlie?" I snapped.

"Fuck off Gaffney" he snapped back.

The ref blew his whistle and called Charlie up for 'unsportsman like conduct'.

Good call otherwise he would have had to ping us both for fighting if he'd left it any longer.

"What? What?" Charlie was outraged but nevertheless followed the ref to the penalty box where he continued to bang shit around and acting all tough.

I know it might seem like I'm being a little harsh on Charlie but I honestly feel like hitting the guy right now for his childish tantrums and I don't think I'm the only one. Connie also looks ready to blow her stack.

The game continued and Charlie left the box after two minutes and gained control of the puck.

"Charlie pass it!" I heard our teammates frantically yelling as Charlie tried to pull off some fancy moves. Probably showing off for the girl in the stands.

"Come on Charlie pass it, we've already won!" I heard someone else yelling.

Damn it Charlie. He was going for another goal.

"Charlie look out!" a Blake player knocked him down and the puck went sailing down the ice.

Of course it stopped just short of goal and was easily picked up by a Blake player.

Aw crap!

"Come on guys get on defence!" I screamed but I doubt any of them heard me as the player came sailing down the ice.

They managed to get one last goal in therefore bringing the game to a tie.

Great! Way to show the Warrior jerks how wrong they were about us.

As the Blake fans cheered the Eden Hall fans booed us and we retreated to our locker room very quickly.

We were silent as we filed in and sat down, each of us hot, sweaty and disappointed at the way things turned out.

Charlie of course was the first one to speak.

"Look the guy hooked me alright?" he snapped.

"We didn't need anymore goals Charlie" Ken spoke up.

Charlie got right in his face and Ken backed down.

"Hey I was trying to win it alright" Charlie defended himself.

"Well mission unaccomplished Charlie" Averman spoke.

"Yeah man, no heart" Luis added and that seemed to stun Charlie for a few seconds before he got his second wind.

"Well what the hell are we playing for any way? Some stupid school? The alumni? I mean Warriors?" he ripped his jersey off.

"What the hell are we now?" he asked the rest of us.

"Look man WE are on scholarship. I'm staying" Russ spoke up and I almost applauded. Didn't Charlie see this was the only way the team could stay together?

"Fine then sell out!" Charlie shoved Russ.

"Man who are you calling a sell out?" Russ shoved Charlie back and Fulton stepped in.

"Hey!" I tried to interject but the boys were too far gone.

"How long does it take to score a goal?" Coach Orion stormed into the room and the guys stopped fighting at once.

They all ducked as Orion threw a puck across the room, making a giant dent in the notice board where our roster was posted.

"Less than a second. Which means no lead is safe if you cant play defence" Orion made his point and left the room as quickly as he came. Of course not before telling us we had practice the next morning at five am.

"Gotta get up early if you want to hunt goose eggs" he said before shutting the door.

We all sunk back down on the benches in silence.

"Hey who took my clothes?" Guy asked and we all noticed that our clean clothes were now missing.

Aw shit! Great way to end our first game.

* * *

**A/N - thanks for your reviews. Yes Fulton is acting a little weird, you'll find out why in later chapters and I know it seems like Julie hates Charlie but he is unknowingly driving a wedge between her and Fulton. I'll try to update again soon.**


	7. Chapter 7

Can you believe those Varsity jerks stole all of our clothes and put them under the running showers? 

I certainly couldn't but at least the boys had enough decency to surround Connie and I when we emerged from the locker room in our jerseys minus all of the padding.

And then there was the "Freshmen stink" message written on the walls. When was the last time they smelled themselves? Well especially that ugly ape Cole.

"You guys realise we need a little payback now right?" Charlie spoke up with an evil grin.

"Yeah!" we all brightened up a little. A little revenge on Varsity was always a welcome suggestion.

We were throwing around ideas but weren't getting anywhere when we were interrupted.

"Charlie!" a woman called sternly and I realised it was the same red-headed woman I'd seen Bombay talking to.

"Yes mom?" Charlie asked innocently. Even the blind could see he was in big trouble. So I was right, she really was his mom.

"You're coming with me NOW" she said with a look that showed she meant business.

I noticed that everyone else was looking anywhere but directly at her. I took note and started studying my shoes.

"Sorry guys the prank will have to wait until later" Charlie apologised obviously thinking we couldn't do anything without him. Hmm, typical.

"No worries, leave it to me, Jules, Ken, Luis and Dwayne" Russ piped up.

"Are you sure?" Charlie asked.

"Trust me" Russ replied with a grin.

Whatever he had planned, it was going to be good.

We all said our goodbyes and I even got a goodnight kiss from Fulton before he left. Granted it was a peck on the lips but it was the most action I'd seen from him since we arrived at Eden Hall.

"Meet me in my dorm when you've showered and changed" Russ told us in-dorm Ducks after everyone else had gone.

"Okay" the rest of us agreed and headed to our respective dorms to take a well earned shower.

My roommate was out, probably watching the Varsity game and I was grateful for a little peace and quiet. It had been a rough first week and already I could see our 'tight-knit' team starting to fall apart.

And that included me and Fulton.

I changed into a pair of old sweatpants and a t-shirt and headed towards Russ' room.

Whatever he had planned had better be good.

I noticed Luis and Dwayne were missing and Russ informed me that they were out getting the 'equipment' as time was of the essence with this prank.

"Okay, we need our gloves for this one and we need to be in and out of their locker room before the end of the game" Russ ordered.

He then filled us in on what we were about to do.

"Russ you are an evil genius!" I told him. No way in the world would Charlie have come up with this one. The way his pranks have been going I'm almost sure it would have involved some kind of animal poo.

"I know, save your applause for later" Russ grinned.

"Guys the tank is in position" Luis informed.

"Come on, lets go" Russ handed me a pair of hockey gloves and we all headed towards the rink for a little payback.

"I'll howl like a coyote when someone's a comin'" Dwayne informed us as he and Luis stood guard.

"Better than a yodel" Russ whispered to me and he, Ken and myself disappeared inside Varsity's locker room.

"Time to get chilly!" Russ declared and we brought the tank out from its hiding place from behind a row of lockers.

"Hey do you think they'll miss this big ol' thing in Chemistry class?" Russ asked innocently.

"What do you think?" Ken replied.

I was in charge of the pipe at the end of the tank, thus ensuring I got to freeze absolutely everything inside each and every Varsity player's lockers.

"Hey what about Banksie?" Russ asked me and I realised we'd just arrived at his locker.

"He's one of them now isn't he?" I replied feeling really mean but it was the truth.

"Sad but true, sorry Cake-eater" Russ agreed.

"How about full pressure?" I suggested evilly turning up the pressure valve on the tank.

"Come on guys we'd better get Dwayne in here for the final touch!" I said handing the shaving cream to Ken.

"Maybe I'm not the best person to handle shaving cream around Dwayne, I think he's still mad at me for Goldberg's prank during the Games" Ken handed the can back to me.

"Good point" Russ agreed collecting the cowboy.

"Need a lift Catlady?" Dwayne took his hat off and stooped down so I could climb on his shoulders.

I wrote our little message in big thick white letters. I almost wished I could hang around to see the looks on those big jerks faces.

"Time to go guys" Luis stuck his head in the door telling us that the game had just ended.

"We'll get rid of the evidence on the way back" Russ indicated to the cans of shaving cream.

"What about the tank?" I asked realising we'd forgotten to hide it.

"Ken's already taken care of it" Russ said and it was then I noticed Ken was nowhere to be found.

"He's returning it?" I asked.

"Yep, if they didn't realise it was missing then we wont get caught as easily" Russ said logically.

We binned the cans along the way and the boys walked me to my dorm just in case anyone had seen something they shouldn't have.

"See you at breakfast Jules, we'll fill in the others together" Russ told me and I nodded. It felt nice to be included in something for a change.

"Night guys, great work by the way. Russ you are the devil!" I laughed at Russ' proud grin before closing the door.

As if on cue my body suddenly remembered the gruelling game it had endured an hour and a half earlier and I had to drag myself over to the bed where I immediately fell into a deep sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

  
Connie was waiting for me after last period. I must say I was a bit surprised, especially when I noticed that Fulton wasn't there. 

"Fulton had to run an errand with Charlie" she explained.

"Oh" I replied trying to hide my disappointment. It felt like I was being ditched for Charlie.

"But you and me need a chat, now!" Connie ordered as she practically marched me back to my dorm room.

"What's going on?" I asked when she shut the door and made me sit on the bed.

"You tell me. You're not the same Julie as you were during the Goodwill Games. And WHAT is going on with you and Fulton?" she laid it out in the open.

Crap, someone else had realised that we weren't the same couple we were a few weeks ago.

"I don't know" I admitted. It was the truth. I had no idea where I stood with him.

"So you haven't had a huge fight or something?" Connie asked.

I shook my head.

"So you're just not talking to each other for no apparent reason" she asked looking puzzled.

"I guess so" I replied realising what I had been doing. I'd been ignoring him because I was mad at the time he was spending with Charlie.

"Do you realise how dumb that sounds?" Connie asked with a hint of a smile. She knew she was cheering me up in her own direct way.

"Not as dumb as you and Portman sound" I retorted grinning.

"Portman might sound dumb but I DON'T!" she replied throwing a candy bar at me.

"What's this?" I asked.

"Chocolate, just in case you needed more cheering up, and since I've already gotten you to smile, its just a little bonus" Connie took a second bar out of her bag for herself and started unpeeling the wrapper.

"Thanks Cons" I replied setting the bar on my nightstand. I'd eat it for dessert later.

"Its Charlie isn't it?" Connie blurted out as if she'd just been thinking really hard about it.

"What's Charlie?" I asked fearfully. I knew how close she and Charlie were.

"Charlie's been hanging off of Fulton ever since Jesse left for Philly and now that Adam's been moved to Varsity, its gotten worse" Connie said triumphantly as if she'd just discovered the cure for cancer.

"You know when you put it like that, I feel like the biggest bitch ever. Of course Fulton needs a new best friend, especially since Portman ditched us to stay in Chicago" I realised why he'd been acting the way he had been.

Man I'm such a loser!

"You're not a bitch, I understand. I was the same way in the fifth grade when Guy stopped paying attention to me and became best friends with Jesse and Terry. Although it only lasted a week, I remember declaring it was the worst week of my life and boy did I make Guy crawl!" Connie laughed.

"Fifth grade? Jeez Cons you're a fast learner" I laughed. I could honestly imagine her getting all cross with Guy and Guy crawling like a dog to win her affection back and the image was hilarious.

"Yep well I'm a Freshman now, in high school and Guy's got plenty of girls to shower his affections on now" Connie replied with a stony face.

"Do you want him to shower his affections on some other girl?" I asked carefully.

"I don't care what he does" she replied dismissively.

Sometimes I couldn't help but wonder whether Connie suffered from multiple personality syndrome or something. The way she changed moods in a matter of seconds was, well amazing, for lack of a better word.

"Okay, so anyone you'd like to shower your affections on? Say, Portman perhaps?" I asked cheekily. I got the hint she didn't want to talk about Guy anymore.

"Portman? No, I still can't believe that ass kissed me at the airport!" she tried to suppress a grin but she knew she'd just given herself away.

"And you so enjoyed it! Connie and Portman sitting in a tree…." I started singing.

"Finish that sentence and you die!" Connie faked an evil glare.

"K-I-S-S- argh!" I got half way through when she launched on me and covered my mouth with her hand.

So I did one of things anyone would do, I stuck my tongue out and licked her hand.

"EW JULIE THAT'S GROSS!" Connie shrieked retracting her hand and wiping it on my bed.

"Yeah? You ain't seen nothing yet!" I taunted.

"I warned you!" Connie relaunched herself and we entangled in a full blown play fight.

Yes I know, we are just like the boys, only with long hair and boobs.

"Whoah! I would've come in sooner if I knew this was going on!"

Connie and I looked up at the intruder and rolled our eyes when we saw it was Luis, Charlie, Averman and Fulton.

"Yeah, Fult, you're one lucky guy" Averman slapped Fulton on the back.

"Was there any shirt ripping involved?" Charlie asked innocently.

"Pigs" Connie muttered as she got off of me and straightened her t-shirt and untangled her hair.

"Yeah guys, quit it. Besides, as Julie's boyfriend I should get privileges" Fulton started to say before immediately clamming up, realising what he had just said.

"Bigger pig!" Connie shot at him as we all tried to stifle laughter.

It didn't work very well and the six of us, Fulton included, burst out laughing.

"Sorry girls, I didn't mean it like that" Fulton apologised when we'd all calmed down.

"We know, but damn it was funny" Connie replied.

"Jules, I was wondering, did you want to do something tonight, you know just the two of us?" Fulton ignored Connie's last comment and turned to me.

"Sure" I replied trying to downplay my excitement. I couldn't believe it, he wanted to actually spend some time alone with me!

"But Fulton weren't we…" Charlie cut in until Connie shoved him, hard.

"Ow! What was that for?" Charlie asked rubbing his arm.

"Nothing, just felt like it" Connie replied innocently.

"Come on boys, lets leave the lovebird alone" she very obviously dragged the other boys out of the room with her.

"What was that about?" Fulton asked me looking confused.

"Beats me, its just Connie being Connie I guess" I replied. We'd finally hit a good patch and I didn't want to bring up all the Charlie stuff with him just yet.

"Oh, okay, well did you want to catch a movie tonight?" Fulton asked almost shyly, like he was asking me out on a first date.

"Sure" I replied smiling.

"Cool, but there's something I want to do first" Fulton said quickly, as if he were afraid to do what he was about to do.

"Okay" I replied but was startled by his hands reaching out and pulling me towards him.

I didn't say anything else, not that I was able to, as he lowered his head to mine and gave me the most passionate, heated kisses I've ever experienced. This one was even better than our make out session on our last day together after the Goodwill Games.

"Wow" I managed to breathe out when we finally pulled away from each other.

"I've been meaning to give you one of those for a while now" Fulton smirked.

"Well its about time you did" I replied laughing.

"Yeah and I'm gonna do it again" he grinned and leaned in for round two.

Perhaps we were going to be okay after all.

* * *

**AN - thanks for your reviews, sorry for the lack of updates recently, I've been on holidays and got back yesterday and I can safely say, I didn't touch a computer the entire time I was away!! I'll update again soon.**


	9. Chapter 9

How wrong was I?

Fulton's gone and the Ducks are now dying a slow, horrible, painful death.

I'll back track a little and fill you in on what happened.

The long and the short of it was that after we pulled the prank on Varsity, they opted for a little payback by inviting us to the fancy Minnesota Club for dinner and us being the naïve dipshits that we were agreed to it and were all shocked when they left us with the bill that cost over $800.

As if any of us had that kind of money so we had to stay behind for four hours and clean the entire place from top to bottom. I got stuck on dish duty with Dwayne but that's not really the point.

So Charlie had this idea for payback which involved Dean Buckley's Brazilian Fire Ants and the Varsity dorm rooms. It was pretty damn funny to see them in their pyjamas jumping around with ants in their pants (quite literally I might add) but then the storm hit and it hit hard.

Riley challenged us to an early preview of the JV/Varsity showdown at dawn the next morning. Of course us being up for any kind of challenge at that point agreed to it. How stupid were we?

Of course we got our asses kicked. Rules of an un-refereed game were that there were no rules and Varsity took full advantage of it, with the exception of Adam. He was playing like he always played and when he pulled a legal defence on Charlie and got the better of him, Charlie took him down and started a massive brawl between the two teams.

Connie and I ganged up on some poor Varsity goon and it took both of us sitting on him to keep him down. Yay, go us!

Still not the point, the point is that Coach Orion busted us big time, made us hand over our jerseys, said a few things Charlie didn't like and Charlie walked.

I've never felt so humiliated in my entire life when Fulton followed him. How could he just walk out on us like that? How could he walk out on me?

"20 laps then hit the showers" came Orion's order as he left us alone on the ice. I guess he felt he'd overstayed his welcome and was giving us some space to comprehend what Charlie and Fulton had just done.

"Come on Jules, I'll skate with you" Connie put an arm around my shoulders.

Damn it! I wasn't going to cry! If he wants to leave me fine, I'll show him he doesn't bother me.

So I thanked Connie for her support and used my anger to propel me around the rink. At one stage I think I'd even caught up to Luis who just smiled at me awkwardly and backed off, allowing me to pass. Smart boy had realised I needed to be alone.

I showered and changed and upon leaving the locker room I ran into that Scooter guy, the one who offered a tie before the 'unofficial' game.

"Hey I'm sorry if we got you into trouble with your coach" he said quietly.

"Who cares? The showdown's probably gonna be cancelled anyway now since we're down 2 players" I accidentally let out more than I probably should have then.

What was it about this guy that made him seem so damn trustworthy?

"Why what happened?" he asked looking concerned.

"I really should go" I hoisted my bag higher up on my shoulder and went to leave.

"Julie wait!" Scooter ran after me.

"What?" I snapped.

"Look you're obviously upset and I'm here if you need to talk to someone" he was touching my arm.

"You're Varsity" I shot back at him.

"So? I'm nothing like the rest of them and if you'd just give me a few minutes of your time I could prove it to you" he challenged.

Julie Gaffney does not back away from a challenge so I agreed.

"Fine but can we go off campus, I don't need any more grief with my teammates right now" I told him.

"Fine, my car's outside" he grinned.

What was I doing agreeing to talk with a Varsity jerk? What would Fulton think?

_Fulton made his choice when he chose Charlie over you, again._

Grrr, stupid little voice in the back of my head was at it again. I couldn't argue with it this time though. He done the unthinkable and left the Ducks.

Could I ever forgive him for that?

Right now I wasn't sure I could.

So I followed Scooter outside and resisted all urge to roll my eyes when I saw him unlock a BMW sports car. At least its not a convertible.

"I know, cliché right?" Scooter laughed.

"Am I that easy to read?" I asked hoping I wasn't that transparent. Oh boy would I be in trouble then.

"No, I was just taking an educated guess on this one" Scooter held the passenger door open for me and I slid in.

"New car?" I asked as he got into the driver's side.

"Yes. How'd you know?" he asked me turning the key in the ignition.

"New car smell" I told him as I buckled my seatbelt. I still couldn't believe I was getting into a car with a stranger, a Varsity player at that.

_Relax Julie, the Ducks are dead_.

I decided to listen to the voice for a change and relaxed back into the seat.

Sharing breakfast with our rival team's goalie wasn't as bad as I expected. We mostly talked about tactics and games we'd won (and lost).

"So the Bash Brother's your boyfriend then?" Scooter asked me when we arrived back at Eden Hall.

I wasn't sure how to answer that.

"Yeah" I finally replied. Fulton and I hadn't officially broken up yet.

"He's a lucky guy" Scooter replied.

"I guess" I answered turning to stare out of the car window.

"Thanks for having breakfast with me. It was fun" Scooter pulled into the student parking lot and killed the engine.

"Sure thing, I'd better go and thanks" I told him whipping my seatbelt off and opening the car door.

"Anytime Julie" Scooter called after me.

I really needed to find Connie and fast.

* * *

**Thanks for all of your reviews. Glad you're still sticking with this story. Sorry to the Fulton/Julie fans but she had to be pissed when Fulton walked away from the team!!!!**

**Tennisblaze4000 – it was Portman who didn't go to Eden Hall in D3.**

**Donna 79 – I agree, Connie was kinda bi-polar!!**


	10. Chapter 10

The next few days at Eden Hall were hell for the rest of us. Varsity had taken it upon themselves to remind us about how our Captain had ditched us and the only remaining Bash Brother had followed him. 

It was like pouring salt on an open wound and I'm not afraid to admit it, it stung.

Adam had even stopped talking to us and I'm not entirely sure it was the Varsity's fault. He actually looked at us like we were beneath him now.

Perhaps Charlie had been right, Adam certainly was acting like a cake eater these days.

"Julie have you seen the school paper?" Connie asked me waving the Eden Hall Weekly in my face.

"Sure, its right in front of me" I replied sarcastically and Connie rolled her eyes.

"Look at this, can they print things like this?" she asked shoving the paper under my nose.

I looked at the headline.

"_Sitting Ducks – Eden Hall's 'Miracle Team' a Sham"_

I silently read the article.

_From the first moment the new JV Hockey Team set foot on campus they have shown us that they are not the Mighty Ducks they once might have been. From destroying assemblies to THAT embarrassing first game tie the Ducks have now hit an all-time low._

_Sources inform us that as of early yesterday morning two of the Ducks have left the team indefinitely. The two players in question are Captain, Charlie Conway and Left Wing Defenseman and "Bash Brother" Fulton Reed._

_With the loss of two more of their valuable players just how much longer can the Ducks stay afloat?_

_Student opinions around campus are unanimous – the Ducks will be dead by the end of the semester_.

The lovely piece of journalism (and I'm dripping with sarcasm here) was accompanied by an ever-so-flattering photo of the Ducks on induction day looking lost and confused. I recognised it as the moment Charlie had just dropped the Bombay left us bombshell on us.

"Is it me or is the entire cafeteria staring at us?" Averman asked as he and Luis joined Connie and I at our usual table.

"They must've read the paper" Connie scowled and I handed the paper to the new additions to the table.

"Why do I look like a stunned mullet?" Luis asked perusing the photo.

"You know I've always wondered about that saying, why would a mullet looked stunned in the first place?" Averman asked.

"I dunno, maybe with a hook hanging out of the side of its mouth it's stunned?" Russ argued.

"Hook?" Goldberg asked looking confused.

"A mullet is a fish Goldie" Dwayne answered.

"Wait I thought a mullet was a haircut?" Goldberg asked.

"Yeah, a really bad one at that" Russ grinned.

"But you just said it was a fish" Goldberg was confused even further.

"It's both" Guy piped up.

"Really?" Goldberg asked.

"YES!" we all said at the same time and for the first time since yesterday, we all laughed.

"Man that felt good" Connie said once we became silent again.

"I'll say, I was starting to worry we would never laugh again" Ken agreed.

"Us never laugh again? Come on Wu Man" Russ teased.

"I have one more question?" Goldberg asked.

"What?"

"Can a haircut be stunned?" he asked very seriously and that set us off again.

By now I'm sure the entire school population thought we were insane. If they didn't already think that of course.

It took a lot longer for the laughter to die off this time because every time it did, someone would mutter "stunned haircut" and we'd laugh again.

Who'd have thought such a stupid topic would be good for a laugh like this?

"Do you think we can prove them all wrong without Charlie and Fulton?" Guy asked suddenly.

We all thought for a moment before responding.

"We're gonna have to aren't we?" Connie answered with a look of sheer determination on her face.

"Yeah, and if we're gonna do it, we're gonna have to work damn hard" Luis was trying to channel Charlie but it didn't quite have the same effect.

Fortunately for him we humoured him anyway.

"Yeah!" we agreed.

This afternoon's practice should be interesting then.

* * *

Indeed practice was interesting. Coach Orion had obviously been thinking about our line up as he informed us he was shuffling it around again.

Instead of back-up Goalie, Goldberg was now taking Fulton's position and Guy was taking Charlie's. Connie had been moved to Guy's spot and Ken was moved to Connie's.

Poor Goldberg looked scared out of his mind when Coach announced his new position.

"That means that Gaffney will be playing full games from now on. So we've got to work extra hard on our defence now to give her a break" Coach continued.

"Okay lets run some drills, Mendoza, Wu and Averman against Moreau, Goldberg and Tyler. Use the open net and take turns in playing offence and defence. Go" Orion ordered and they took off down the other side of the rink.

"Germaine and Robertson, you're taking turns at shooting pucks at Gaffney" he ordered. I guess they were going to be taking Charlie and Adam's places as our leading scorers. Not that I minded, Dwayne and Guy were wonderful players.

* * *

"Guys I don't want to step on anyone's toes here but I think we should call a team meeting tonight" Ken spoke up as we were finishing up in the locker room.

"What for?" Averman asked.

"I don't know about you but I think we need to discuss our new, um, situation without any outside influence" Ken explained.

"I'm in" I replied. I thought Ken had a great idea there.

"Me too" Connie replied.

One by one the rest of the team slowly agreed to meet at Russ and Ken's dorm room after dinner.

"Hey Julie" Connie came up to me.

"Yeah?"

"Do you think I could stay with you tonight in the dorm?" Connie asked me seriously.

"Is everything okay?" I asked her.

"Yeah its just that…"

"What?" I asked starting to feel a little worried. I hoped everything was okay for her at home.

"This is so stupid, Charlie lives down the street from me and I really don't want to run into him today, I'm so mad at him" Connie explained.

"Sure, I understand" I told her as I picked up my bag ready to leave the locker rooms. Our 15 minutes were up.

"Thanks Julie, have you heard from Fulton?" she asked me gently as we walked back to my dorm room.

"No and honestly I don't want to. I'm pissed off at him too" I replied. The asshole hadn't even bothered to call me.

"What about Scooter? Has he tried to talk to you again?" Connie asked when we were in the safety of my dorm room. I had asked her not to say anything about Scooter and I talking to each other. The Ducks were treading on very thin ice at the moment and didn't need any further upset.

"Yeah he asked how I was doing this morning after first period. But if you're asking whether we've had any more D&Ms then no" I replied.

"You seem a little upset about that" Connie teased with a glint in her eye.

"No not really" I wasn't taking the bait. I knew what she was getting at and I didn't have any answers for her. Not until I find out where Fulton and I stood for sure.

She sighed and gave up the interrogation.

"So wanna watch a movie before dinner?" she asked me eying my DVD collection.

"Sure" I replied hoping she'd pick something that didn't have romance in it.

Fortunately for me she picked Terminator 2.

"Portman said I should watch this one" she informed me.

"Oh he did, did he?" I teased her.

"Yep" she answered and popped the movie in and settled on the spare bed to watch.

Since I'd seen it a hundred times already I decided to get some French homework out of the way.

By the time I'd finished it was up the part where Arnold Schwarzanegger's character was sacrificing himself into the hot liquid and John Connor was crying like a baby because he didn't want to lose his new friend.

I glanced over at Connie and almost burst out laughing when I saw her wipe away a tear. She's so lucky Portman's not here to see that.

The movie ended and I looked at the clock.

"Come on dinner starts in five minutes" I told her as I put away my French homework. At least the hardest subject was done first.

"What's on the menu tonight?" Connie asked as we entered the cafeteria.

"Um, lets see we've got a choice of Tuna Surprise or Chicken and vegetables" I read the menu on the wall.

"I so do not want to know what the surprise is so I'm gonna go with the chicken" Connie followed me to the line.

Dinner at Eden Hall wasn't as bad as breakfast and lunch since majority of the population had left the grounds to go home for dinner. Only the 'in house' students remained.

"Lets grab a table" I suggested once we'd gotten our meals.

Shortly after the boys joined us. It appeared that the in state Ducks had stayed behind for dinner too. Oh well, the more the merrier right?

Dinner was strangely silent. It seemed like we all had something else on our minds than conversation.

"Well since we're all here shall we go?" Russ asked.

We all nodded our agreement and made our way back to Russ and Ken's dorm for our 'team meeting'. I had a feeling that lots of anger was going to come to the surface soon.


	11. Chapter 11

We all congregated inside the boys dorm and spread ourselves out, with the Bash Brothers, our Captain and our two leading scorers (ie: Adam and Jesse) missing we were a lot more spaced out than what we were back in LA. 

After about ten minutes of looking around the room silently Connie spoke up.

"So who's gonna go first?" she asked.

"You" Averman replied cowering a little as he waited for the backlash.

It never came and Connie surprised us all by simply shrugging.

"Okay, I don't need to tell you all that I'm extremely pissed off right now and NO its not because I'm PMSing" she said and the boys all stared at her in shock.

"Same here" I replied getting the point across that both the girls on the team are annoyed because of what Charlie and Fulton have done to the team.

"So what do we do? Are we still Ducks or are we Warriors now?" Ken asked seriously and I knew we all had to think long and hard about it.

"We can't be Ducks when half the team is missing can we?" Goldberg asked like he didn't know the answer truly was.

"I think we can, I mean they did leave us on their own free will remember" Guy argued.

"Yeah but what about those that didn't have a choice, like Banks and Jesse" Connie argued back logically.

"I don't know, I mean Banks could have always said 'no' to Varsity but Jesse really didn't have a choice and really when you think about it, Bombay kinda killed the Ducks when he bailed" Goldberg came up with another logical answer.

"Yeah and didn't Bombay say to us '_I made you guys and I'm sticking with you_' or was I the only one who actually believed him" Averman was angry and it was a rarity.

"I believed him too" Connie said sadly.

"Yeah so did I" Guy admitted.

"Me too" Goldberg agreed.

"So does this mean we're Warriors now?" Luis asked.

Everyone was silent. I knew how they all felt, they didn't really want to give up on the one thing that brought us all together in the first place.

Finally it was Connie who spoke "I guess it does"

With that sentence the entire atmosphere turned sour. We all knew it was coming but we didn't want to acknowledge that the time had now arrived.

Eventually we left the dorm in silence leaving everyone to their own thoughts and feelings. All I knew was that nothing short of a miracle could fix this mess.

I was surprised to find Scooter standing outside my door with a box of chocolates when Connie and I returned.

"Hey, there you are, I read the paper when I got home, are you okay?" he asked the both of us.

"Just fine and dandy" Connie replied still in a foul mood.

"I know, dumb question. Of course you're not. I'm sorry" Scooter apologised.

"It's okay" Connie replied. She must have felt bad for snapping at him.

"I have chocolate if that helps" he held the box out towards her.

"Okay, you're my new friend" Connie laughed accepting the gift.

"So its true then, the key to a girl's heart lies in a box of chocolates" Scooter replied sounding somewhat corny.

Funny, corny seems to be just the thing Connie and I need right now.

"Sometimes" I replied.

"Well I should get going, its almost curfew. I just wanted to see how you were doing" Scooter said softly.

"We'll be okay, we've endured worse" I lied knowing that losing half of our team was probably the worst thing we'd ever endured.

"Good to hear. The bit about being okay, I mean. Yeah well, I'll see you tomorrow" Scooter said as he retreated back down the hall.

"Thanks for the chocolate!" Connie and I yelled after him.

"You're welcome" he yelled back over his shoulder before he was out of sight.

"He's nice" Connie commented when we entered my dorm.

"He's Varsity" I reminded her.

"So? I think he's okay" she argued.

"Only cos he brought chocolate" I laughed.

"Yeah so?" she asked innocently as she tore the box open and offered me a piece.

I happily accepted and we both chewed silently for a moment.

"Wow, this tastes expensive" Connie had a dreamy look on her face and I knew Scooter had just won the Connie Moreau seal of approval.

"I know, its so good!" I replied.

"Come on, lets get to bed before we make ourselves sick" Connie suggested putting the box down.

"Yeah, I have to play _full_ games now" I rolled my eyes.

"Poor you, I now have only Goldberg and Russ defending me now" Connie looked scared.

I suppose I would be too. I mean Russ was a good defence player but he was no Fulton or Portman and Goldberg may have the size, but he'd never played defence before.

"We're gonna get our asses kicked tomorrow night" Connie admitted.

"I know" I replied climbing into bed. Any happiness we may have felt a little earlier had long since disappeared when reality reared its ugly head again.

"Night Jules, thanks for letting me stay" Connie yawned and stretched out on the spare bed.

"You're welcome. Goodnight" I replied flicking the lamp off and settling in under the covers.

* * *

We were woken the next morning by a very rude person who insisted on banging hard on our door for ten minutes straight.

"WHAT!" Connie had flown out of bed and yanked the door open to find a very frightened Russ on the other side.

"It's a miracle? You need to come back to our dorm" he said whilst grinning sheepishly. I guess he realised the knocking was a bit overkill.

"Can we at least get dressed first?" Connie asked still in a foul mood.

"I guess" Russ glanced down at Connie in her silk camisole and boxer shorts.

"Russ you pervert!" Connie slapped him and shut the door.

"Julie come on, we have to get dressed. Apparently it's a miracle!" Connie said sarcastically as she pulled on a pair of jeans, borrowed one of my shirts and slid her feet into her flip flops.

"Miracle my ass" I grumbled as I reluctantly climbed out of my bed and threw on a similar outfit to Connie.

We opened the door to find Russ still standing there rubbing his arm where Connie had slapped him.

"Come on show us this miracle then" Connie said and I wouldn't have been at all surprised if she grabbed him and dragged him by his earlobe all of the way to his dorm room.

She didn't though but he knew that we were mad at being woken up so early, on a Saturday, nevertheless.

"Here he is, the miracle" Russ swung open the door to his dorm and there was Fulton sitting on the bed.

Everyone was silent and Russ looked as if he wanted to die on the spot. Obviously it had only just occurred to him that I might be pissed off at Fulton.

So I did what any self-respecting girl would do.

I turned on my heel and walked away.


	12. Chapter 12

"Julie!" I heard someone calling after me. 

"Leave her be, what did you expect? Her to roll out the welcome mat?" I heard Connie sticking up for me followed by footsteps.

"Jules, are you okay?" her soft voice was asking me.

"Yeah just shocked I guess, mostly annoyed, but oh crap I dunno!" I replied not really knowing which emotion I was feeling at that time.

"Do you want to be alone?" she asked me.

"Maybe for a little while if that's okay, I might just go for a blade somewhere" I replied. All I wanted to do was feel the wind blowing through my hair.

"Okay, do you want me to yell at him some more?" Connie asked mischievously.

"You'd love it if I said yes wouldn't you?" I grinned.

"Am I that transparent?" she asked innocently.

"Only when you're plotting evil things you are" I replied giving her a quick hug.

"Hey I know! I might call Portman and see if he'll tell me why Fulton's being such an ass!" Connie grinned as if she'd just found the cure for cancer.

"You do that" I told her knowing she'd do it anyway.

"Okay, have fun, stay safe. I'll be in your dorm when you get back" she squeezed my arm and ran back down the hallway towards the phones.

I made it to my dorm in record time, grabbed my blades and left again before anyone could catch up to me.

I really needed to be on my own for a while.

I made it down to the park on foot, since blades and grass don't really mix that well, and sat on a bench in front of the fountain to strap on my blades. I hopped my way back onto the path and pushed off feeling the breeze increasing the faster I skated.

I lost count of how many times I skated around the park but eventually I found myself back on that same bench breathing heavily but feeling more relaxed than I had been in days.

"Mind if I sit here" a familiar voice cut into my thoughts.

I didn't even bother looking up.

"It's a free country" I said still watching the little kids playing near the fountain.

"Julie I'm sorry" he said softly. I still didn't look at him.

"Why'd you come back?" I asked a little coldly.

He was silent for a minute before he spoke.

"I knew that I could deal at Eden Hall with the Ducks there, with you there" he replied.

"And you didn't realise that before you and Charlie killed the Ducks" I replied. I knew it was a little mean but he had to understand the effect his actions had on the rest of us.

"Look Jules, I've been an asshole. I'm admitting it. I put Charlie ahead of you and I'm really sorry. I just want the chance to make it up to you" Fulton was now pleading with me.

I finally turned to look at him and was startled by the sadness in his eyes.

"You can start by asking Coach Orion if you could play in tonight's game. We could really use the defence" I said.

"Already done, but how can I make it up to _you_. You're the one I've hurt the most" he said taking my hand.

I looked down at our hands and was relieved that the same spark was still there.

"You can give me a hug" I replied feeling the need to be in arms again.

"Done" he grinned wrapping his strong arms around me.

I sunk my head into his chest suddenly feeling very safe and warm.

It made me feel like everything was going to be okay.

"Come on, I need some practice" he picked up my bag and placed my blades into it and threw it over his shoulder.

I accepted the hand he was offering to me and we held hands all the way back to Eden Hall.

* * *

"Did he grovel?" Connie asked me when I found her in the dorm sitting on the spare bed doing her homework.

"To a degree. Did you ring Portman?" I asked her.

"Yeah, he didn't even know Charlie and Fulton had left the team. He was so pissed off" Connie replied.

"I bet you would have calmed him down though" I teased her.

"Yeah I did. Oh shut up!" Connie answered me seriously before realising I was messing with her.

"Make me!" I answered.

She was about to pounce when a knock interrupted us.

"Come in!" I yelled.

"Julie I need help!" Goldberg looked scared stiff as he entered the room.

"What do you need?" I asked.

"I need some new equipment and I don't know what I'm supposed to be getting. Coach said to put it on the school account" Goldberg said.

"New equipment? Oh you mean different pads?" I replied realising that he wouldn't be able to play in his goalie pads anymore.

"Yeah" he replied.

"Okay, let me get Fulton and we'll take you to Hans' shop" I suggested.

"Thank you Catlady, you're a life saver!" he grinned gratefully.

"Hey what about me? I'm coming too" Connie pouted.

"Moreau, you're a life saver too" Goldberg humoured her.

"Thank you!" she grinned.

* * *

Goldberg felt a little better after getting his new equipment but you could still see he was nervous as hell about stepping out onto the ice as a defenseman.

Orion had agreed to allow Fulton to play but on the condition that he runs extra laps for him at practices. Fulton knew he wouldn't be allowed back without some form of punishment so he accepted it.

We were in the locker room trying to keep up our spirits. Having Fulton return did give us a small amount of renewed hope but it was still painfully obvious that we were missing our other players and friends.

"Okay JV I except to see you on the ice for warm up in 5" Orion exited the locker room to take care of any pre-game business.

"Does hiding in the goal count as warm up?" Goldberg asked.

"Goldie you'll be fine" Guy told him.

"Easy for you to say Guy, you know how to skate" Goldberg argued.

"Hey I didn't know how to skate" Fulton piped up.

"Yeah but we were in pee-wees man, the guys these days are huge and I don't know if I'm built for crushing. In between the ice and the player on top of me I mean" Goldberg pointed out his statement.

"Goldie, relax. Just think of Karp when the Hawks picked on him, use sheer anger like when someone tells you they have pictures of your mom naked" Averman suggested.

"Ew" Goldberg replied not wanting that mental image in his brain.

"Nah he's right Goldie, just pretend that every player on the other team has just told you they screwed your mom and then use your rage to crush them!" Connie agreed with Averman.

"Okay, okay" Goldberg had decided to adopt that tactic.

"Come on Goldie, lets do it!" Fulton held his fist out and Goldberg gingerly tapped fists with him.

"Come on guys, we've got a game to win LET'S GO!" Connie yelled and we charged out onto the ice.

* * *

Our newfound glory didn't last too long as we got creamed by an embarrassing 15-2. Connie and Guy were the only ones who scored and we had no form of defence whatsoever.

I honestly thought Orion was going to pop a blood vessel then and there.

Lets just say although he was mighty pissed off about losing the game in such a humiliating manner, at least he didn't make us practice straight after the game for 4 hours like Bombay did in LA.

After clearing the locker room out in 15 minutes, by now the guys had worked out it was much easier to allow us girls to use the showers first whilst they put on old clothes and showered back at the dorms since most of the student body were still at Varsity's game, Fulton was walking me back to the dorm before he too grabbed a shower at the boys dorm building.

"Can I come back after I shower?" he asked me when we reached my door.

"Yeah sure" I replied looking forward to his return.

"Okay, cool" he smiled and kissed my forehead before walking off.

I busied myself for the next half an hour cleaning up the incredible mess Connie and I had made earlier that day when we were trying on different outfits for the sake of it.

I had just finished putting the last of the make up away when Fulton returned.

The second the door opened his lips were glued to mine in an incredibly passionate kiss.

"What was that for?" I asked when we pulled away.

He grinned and grabbed me around the waist, pulling me towards him and kicking the door shut.

"Making it up to you" he said breathlessly as he swooped in again.

Hmmm I could get used to him making it up to me!


	13. Chapter 13

**thanks Donna79 for your review (my one and only for that last chapter - now I would think that people had stopped reading but the stats suggest otherwise). He's gonna do a lot more grovelling in chapters to come (which means yes, he'll screw up again). Hope you enjoy this one.**

* * *

I could be a pain in the butt and tell you to use your imagination as to how he made it up to me but there would be those of you who would think the worst and that's exactly how rumours get started so I'm just going to tell you.

He did spend the night in my dorm but it isn't what you think. No sexual occurrences happened, well unless you count a lot of French kissing sexual but anyway I'm getting off topic.

We spent the night doing pretty much whatever I wanted to do. So I made him come with me to get icecream, popcorn and some movies and we lounged around the dorm room only half eating the icecream, most of it ended up on Fulton's face anyway, not eating any popcorn and not really watching the movies.

I woke up the next morning to find popcorn strewn all over the bed and Fulton and I squished together on a single bed, full clothed I might add and him snoring his head off with his arms wrapped loosely around me.

I shifted so that I could sit up and assess the damage to the room. The discarded icecream container was still upright, thank god, but we'd obviously fallen asleep on the popcorn bag which had burst and now the kernels were everywhere.

Fulton groaned in his sleep and tried to roll over but unfortunately since he was only half lying on the bed he succeeding in rolling his broad frame right off the bed.

Now why didn't I think to do that?

I couldn't help myself, I immediately roared into laughter until tears were streaming down my cheeks.

"What's going on?" he woke and looked around the room sleepily.

"Morning sunshine" I managed to choke out between giggles. The sight of a bash brother wearing last night's wrinkled clothes with messed up hair and a crooked bandana sitting on the floor half asleep is just too damn funny.

"Why am I on the floor?" he asked confused.

"Cos you fell off the bed" I told him.

He seemed to process this thought for a minute.

"Did you push me?" he asked seriously.

"Me? Would I do a thing like that?" I asked innocently.

"Yes" he replied simply.

"Thanks babe, I'm hurt by that" I faked.

"You're welcome" he replied with a grin.

Jeez for someone who just woke up, he's still a smart ass.

"You fell out before I even thought about pushing you" I replied.

"Is that so" he had that cheeky glint in his eye.

"Yeah" I replied making the mistake of taking my eyes off of him for a second to look at the clock.

He leapt towards me in one foul swoop and managed to pull me off of the bed and down to the floor next to him where he started an all out tickle war.

He wants a war, he's gonna get one.

So I attacked back mercilessly and we were both laughing so hard we didn't hear anyone knocking at the door.

"Julie are you okay? Oh my god I am so sorry!" Connie's voice was heard as she quickly retreated back outside.

"Connie is okay – we're just trying to kill each other" Fulton laughed as he let me go and sat up.

Connie then re-entered the room.

"Sorry guys, I didn't mean to intrude" she said looking embarrassed.

"Its okay" I told her also sitting up.

"Coach has just given us our practice schedule, it doesn't look good" she replied handing us our schedules.

"Aw man, I gotta do laps on top of all _this_" Fulton complained casting his eye over this week's training regime.

"Well you did leave the team" Connie joked.

"Thanks for reminding me Cons" he replied dryly.

"You're welcome. We were thinking about having a group game this afternoon, you know like football or volleyball, anything but hockey" Connie informed us.

"Sounds good, wanna go get some breakfast first?" I asked her and Fulton.

"Sure" Connie agreed.

"Cool, you go round up the others and we'll meet you out front in 20?" I suggested knowing it would take at least ten minutes to find the others and then a further ten minutes to get them organised to go anywhere.

"Okay" she scurried off leaving Fulton and I alone once again.

"This looks tough" Fulton was still focused on his training schedule.

"I know" I agreed glancing at my own.

"Well at least we'll be together" he suggested brightly putting an arm around me.

"Yeah" I agreed resting my head on his shoulder.

…………………………………………………….

Being together was the only thing that got us through the week. In fact, the entire team was relying on each other to help them get through the torture.

Orion was being brutal. If we dubbed Bombay "Captain Blood" then I don't know what the hell we'd call Orion, he was a million times worse than Bombay, well except for the whole 'I'm so famous' attitude.

"Anyone have the number for the Edina Cemetery?" Goldberg asked as he plopped down onto the bench.

"Why would you need that number?" Dwayne asked not getting the sarcasm.

"I need to find out if they have enough empty plots for all of us, I dunno about you guys but I'm gonna die if we have any more practices like this" Goldberg explained.

Everyone was too tired to respond.

"TEAM!" Coach bellowed as he entered the locker room.

"Crap, what now?" Averman whispered to Connie who sighed heavily.

"Once you're all dressed I need to see each and every one of you in Dean Buckley's office, which means in 20 minutes" he said before leaving.

"Guys have any of you played any more pranks on Varsity?" Guy asked seriously.

We all shook our heads.

"Then what have done wrong?" Ken asked. He was obviously worried about getting into trouble. From what I've heard him say, his parents are pretty strict on discipline.

"Beats me Wu-Man" Russ responded yawning.

"Come on, lets go find out then" Connie got us moving again.

…………………………………………….

That was one meeting I could've done without.

They called us in to inform us that Hans had passed away a few days before and that we were being given special permission to attend the funeral the next day.

"You know I didn't mean that cemetery comment" Goldberg said worriedly after we'd all congregated in my dorm room to 'be together after such traumatic news' as Dean Buckley had put it. He'd also excused us from the rest of our classes that day.

"We know Goldie, you weren't to know" Connie put a reassuring arm around her longtime friend.

"He looked fine the other day" Fulton said absently. I knew he was thinking about our trip to the shop to get Goldberg some new equipment.

I squeezed his hand. Hans had helped Fulton a lot when he was starting out in hockey.

"Have they found Jan yet?" Luis asked. He always held a soft spot for the Scandinavian brothers. Heck, we all did.

No one answered.

"Last I heard, Jan went back to Norway to visit his mother's grave" Guy replied.

"Oh" Luis said softly.

"This bites" Russ said angrily.

"Can they possibly throw anymore shit at us? We get it, you hate us!" he continued yelling towards the ceiling.

"Dude, calm down" Fulton was concerned for his friend.

"Calm down? We've had nothing but crap piled on us from the minute we accepted these scholarships and excuse me for being tired of it" Russ was exploding.

"We're all tired of it Russ, but we need to stick together now more than ever" I replied before Fulton could, knowing that he might get the fact that he left the team thrown back in his face.

"She's right Russ, we're all we have left" Dwayne said gently. He had always had a calming effect on the loudspoken LA native.

"I'm sorry guys" Russ said softly looking down at his hands.

"Its okay amigo" Luis said letting Russ know we weren't going to hold it against him.

Everyone cracks some times.


	14. Chapter 14

Hans' funeral was held the next, since he died of natural causes there was no hold up in releasing the body, and we were more than surprised to see Charlie at the funeral in a suit and he didn't look good. 

It was obvious he'd spent the past few days in tears and hadn't slept much. The bags under his eyes were a dead giveaway, excuse the pun.

I stood next to Connie in the front row since we were the shortest and the entire time I felt sick to my stomach as I tried not to look at the casket in front of me. Instead I clutched onto the single white rose in my hand and looked at the native costumes that Hans' distant cousins had worn.

Fulton had to stand in the back since he was so tall so I didn't get to lean on him throughout the service. Instead, Connie and I clung to each other trying our hardest not to cry.

Charlie didn't speak to any of us Ducks that day. Instead he opted to stick close to his mother and when Bombay arrived and laid Hans' Ducks jersey on the coffin before it was lowered into the ground, Charlie broke down and left.

I could see how much it had hurt Bombay that Charlie was acting this way. He obviously had no idea that things had gotten this bad.

"Every time you touch the ice. Remember it was Hans who taught us how to fly" he'd said.

That was the one thing that stuck in my mind.

After the service we all decided to meet back at the old District 5 pond where Bombay was filled in on what had happed since he'd last seen us.

"Why didn't you guys call me before it got this bad?" he asked.

He all looked at our feet.

"Charlie was the only one who had your number Coach and ah, well, he's not exactly into talking to us lately" Goldberg admitted.

"Oh, I see" Bombay lowered his head.

"Coach? I have a question" Dwayne raised his hand like we were in school.

"Yes Dwayne?" Bombay tried not to laugh.

"Why did Coach Orion quit the Stars? Is it true he punched out a fan?" he asked.

"Who cares? The guy's a jerk!" Russ piped up.

"Maybe there's more to him than you know" Bombay stood up for our new coach.

"Like what?" Connie asked.

"Like, to answer your question Dwayne, he quit the Stars when they moved to Dallas because he had to look after his daughter" Bombay started.

"Couldn't she have gone with him?" Goldberg interrupted.

Bombay took a deep breath. You'd think he'd be used to us interrupting his stories by now.

"Its not that simple Goldberg, you see Orion and his daughter, Becky, were in a car wreck. He was fine but she took the impact and is now in a wheelchair. The doctors say she may never walk again. Orion stayed to help her recover" Bombay explained.

"I liked the punching out the fan story better. This story's too dang depressing" Dwayne declared.

"Yeah!" we all agreed.

Bombay looked bewildered.

"I feel so bad for thinking he's a jerk when his daughter nearly died" Connie declared.

"Me too" I said starting to warm up to our new Coach now.

"Guys, I don't think he wants to be treated any different because of Becky" Bombay advised.

But his words were lost on us as we began talking animatedly about our new Coach.

When we'd finally calmed down enough to let Bombay get a word in he advised us he was hatching a plan to get Charlie to see sense again and that we should organise a street puck game amongst ourselves whilst he was with Charlie.

We agreed to it but Guy called a team meeting back in the dorms straight after Bombay left to check in to his hotel.

* * *

"Guy what's up?" we all asked him as we piled into Luis and Dwayne's dorm room. 

"Oreo called me yesterday, about Charlie" he began.

"Oreo?" Russ asked not getting it, I must admit I didn't understand who he was talking about either.

"Jesse, long story" Guy explained.

"What did he say?" Fulton asked from next to me.

"He called Charlie when he heard about Hans and from what Charlie told him, I'm not so sure Bombay can get him back to the team" Guy said softly.

"What do you mean by that?" Averman asked looking worried. Charlie had been his friend for a long time.

"I mean Charlie told Jesse he's leaving Minnesota for good" Guy dropped the bombshell.

"What?" we all asked with our mouths hanging open.

"What should we do?" Goldberg asked when the shock had worn off.

"Charlie made him promise not to say anything so I guess we can't do anything" Guy said seriously. He didn't want to get Jesse into any trouble.

"I can't believe this. Charlie is like the original Duck. He and Fulton were the only ones who stuck around after we all found out Bombay was a Hawk" Connie pointed out.

"I know, its just wrong. Who's gonna come after me when I get separated from the team again?" Goldberg was talking about how Charlie rescues him from harm every time they go skating together.

"We need Adam" Connie said suddenly.

"He's Varsity" Luis pointed out.

"He knows Charlie better than anyone" Connie argued back.

"He's not speaking to us either?"

"Yeah are we the only ones who remember the fight the other day?" Averman spoke up.

"Can it jackass, of course I remember, but he's hurting too you know, and we've all just shunned him. I think its time to make things right again" Connie argued.

"I agree" I spoke up. Bombay was trying with Charlie so the least we could do was try with Adam.

"Okay so who's gonna call him?" Goldberg asked.

"Guy" Connie said simply.

"Why me?" Guy looked frightenend.

"Because, you're too nice to be turned down" Connie replied simply before announcing she had homework to do and would see us all later.

I knew she was off to call Portman.

"Did she just insult me?" Guy was scratching his head as he stared at the closed door.

"Probably" Russ was stifling his laughter.

"Well Guy, don't you have a phone call to make?" Goldberg innocently handed Guy Dwayne and Luis' in-house phone.

Guy reluctantly accepted it.

"Okay, lets get this over with" he said dialling Adam Banks' number.

* * *

**thanks Torithy, Donna79 and Elyse Black for your reviews and I hope you liked this one (although not a whole lot really happens in this chapter)**


	15. Chapter 15

After Guy called Adam he got him to meet us in the library later that night. At least in the library we knew that none of the Varsity goons would be around.

"Hi" Adam spoke startling the group from their various conversations.

"Hey" we said. I really felt for the guy, it couldn't have been easy on him.

"Adam, we're really sorry about how we've been treating you and I know saying sorry really doesn't make up for anything and I would blame you if you never forgave us but we really are sorry" Connie was the first to break the ice.

"Yeah we're sorry Banksie" we all piped up and Adam sacrificed a small grin. Us Ducks had this insane habit of all speaking the same thing at the same time.

"Guys I was thinking, and since you're all very sorry, I can't be on Varsity anymore, its just too much pressure, can I come back to the Ducks?" he asked hopefully.

"Oh gee Adam, I dunno about that, YES!" Goldberg screamed.

"Yeah!" we cried giving each other high fives.

"GROUP HUG!" Connie screeched and we all latched onto each other.

"So all we need now is Charlie, any ideas Banksie?" Averman asked innocently when the group hug was over.

"Bombay has a plan" Adam replied.

"How did you know about that?" Goldberg asked curiously.

"Bombay called after the funeral, said he had a grand plan to get Charlie back to the team and he wanted everyone at the courts for street puck. Oh and then Jesse called and he said don't worry about Charlie leaving town, he had that one covered" Adam said.

The entire team was staring open mouthed at him.

"What?" Adam asked.

I had to laugh, the Ducks were like one very crazy unit but when we needed it, we all worked together to work towards the same goal and today's goal was getting Charlie back to the team.

"So y'all wanna meet out front at dawn?" Dwayne asked.

"DAWN?" Averman looked fearful, as did the rest of the group.

"Oh right, I forgot I was the only one up at that hour" Dwayne looked sheepish.

"Is ten a realistic hour?" I asked.

"Yeah" the rest of the group said except for Fulton.

I shot him a look and he nodded. I knew from previous experience that he was very reluctant to get out of bed before noon on a weekend, unless we had practice or a game.

"Okay see you guys tomorrow then" Adam said and left the library.

"Bye Banks"

"Later cake-eater"

"Well I'd better get home before my mom kills me" Guy said.

"Me too" Averman replied.

"Me three" Goldberg said.

"I'd say 'me four' to keep it going but then I'd be lying" Fulton said cheekily.

"I'm staying at Julie's so yeah, no 'me five' from me" Connie replied and Fulton looked a little disappointed.

"Well I should get going as well then, make sure nothing happens to these three" Fulton kissed me on the cheek and left with Guy, Averman and Goldberg in tow.

"Oops I think I upset him a little with the whole 'I'm staying at Julie's' thing" Connie shot me an apologetic look.

"Bah, he's get over it" I dismissed it and left the library with Connie, Russ, Luis, Dwayne and Kenny.

"Hey at least we're friends with Banksie again!" Dwayne declared happily. He hated being on unfriendly terms with anyone.

"Yeah, now we just need to get the Captain to pull his head out of his ass and we'll be set" Russ laughed.

"Is that even possible?" Dwayne replied and we couldn't tell if he was being sarcastic or serious but we laughed anyway.

"Come on Cowboy lets get some shut eye so we can be ready to rule the street puck game tomorrow" Russ suggested after the boys had ensured that Connie and I made it to my dorm room safely.

"Night boys" I called.

"Night guys" Connie said.

"Night girls" the boys called back and left us to get some sleep.

* * *

"We get Julie!"

"Well we get Goldberg!"

"Who else can play goalie? Of course you get Goldberg!"

"We get Fulton then if you get Julie"

"We get Portman"

"Portman's not here you idiot!"

"Oh yeah, well Banksie!"

"Connie!"

"Averman!"

"Russ!"

"Luis!"

"Dwayne!"

"Alright Germaine, prepare to be annihilated!"

"Bring it on Wu!"

and that was how our game of street puck got started.

"Whoah there Luis, use the brakes!" I called out to him as he nearly sent me flying into the fence with him.

"Sorry Julie" he said in a dazed state as we helped him to his feet.

"Come on Wu! Pass the puck!"

"Hey look its Coach!" Russ interrupted the game and we all turned to stare at Coach Bombay and Charlie.

Charlie was looking a little sheepish. And so he should! He did quit the team.

"Damn it Conway what took you so long?" Luis called out sounding eerily like Russ.

"Come on guys get into the game!" Connie yelled.

"We get Bombay and you get Conway!" Guy decided how the new players were going to be split.

Unfortunately for the game, we were so excited to have our old Coach and Captain playing that we abandoned the game and adopted a new one called.

'Lets stick Bombay and Charlie in a trash can!'

Catchy ain't it?

After the fun had died down we congregated by the bench and guzzled our water.

"Guys I'm sorry I quit the team and Fulton I'm sorry I yelled at you" Charlie spoke up getting our attention.

We were silent for a minute wondering how to respond to it when Connie spoke for us.

"Its okay, just don't EVER do it again Charlie Conway or I'll kill you!" she said menacingly.

"Okay, I believe you" Charlie looked scared and Fulton put his arm around me laughing softly.

The group started laughing and everyone was satisfied that Charlie was back for good.

"There is one thing though" Averman spoke up.

"What's that?" we all expected him to make a joke.

"You have to convince Coach Orion to come back to the team" he said seriously.

Well that was a first, Averman being serious.

NO! bring back the old jokester Averman.

Charlie's face fell.

"Okay I'll do it" he said softly as if the thought had never occurred to him.

Well I guess that's Charlie for you.

* * *

**sorry its taken so long to update.**

**GAFFNEY06 - thanks for reviewing, unfortunately I didn't quite get around to updating soon!**

**ELYSE BLACK - Nothing much happened in this chapter either, I'll try to have something spectacular in later chapters though (don't quite know what yet!)**

**TELLMEHOW - I intend on finishing every fic I write but this will be the last story in this series (3 is enough for me!!)**

**GALINDAPOPULAR - thanks for your review, you know your story 'Prom Problems' has actually given me an idea for a new fic (which strangely doesn't revolve around prom at all!) I'll work on it soon once I finish my current ones.**

**Thanks for reviewing, they are appreciated!**


	16. Chapter 16

Just when we thought we were a team again, another blow came crashing down on us.

This time it was the Eden Hall Alumni.

So getting back to what happened we were all getting on the bus for our away game against Hunter Valley Prep trying to conceal our excitement at knowing we were about to be rejoined by our Captain.

Of course, in true Charlie Conway fashion, he didn't bother asking Coach Orion if he could come back until the last possible second.

"Gaffney" Orion checked me off on his list.

"Goldberg"

"Fulton"

I took my seat and tried my very hardest to suppress a grin. I knew who would be next.

"Conway?" Orion looked shell shocked.

"Hi Coach" Charlie flashed his famous grin.

Orion just raised an eyebrow at him once he'd regained his composure. Still it was kinda funny to see the cool, calm and collected Coach Orion sweat for a minute.

"I want to play two way hockey, can I come back?" Charlie asked and I stole a glance at Fulton who looked like he was about to burst out laughing.

Poor Russ actually looked ready to burst a blood vessel.

"Sit down Conway, we're running late" Orion ordered with a grin and we all cheered.

Charlie made the mistake of sitting next to Russ who immediately jumped on him.

"Aw man you should have seen your face! _Coach I want to play two way hockey_" Russ mocked Charlie and laughed.

So that was the good news, then came the bad news.

I'll spare you the details but the gist of what happened was that the bus was stopped by Dean Buckley.

Buckley then made some sexist comment with 'Can I talk to your boys for a minute' to which I blatantly pointed out, _and girls_. The pompous idiot then had the nerve to patronise me. Oh how I wished I could slap that stupid look from his face.

So like a true and utter asshole, he tells us that there's going to be a Board meeting held tomorrow and we were on the agenda. By that he meant _sorry folks, we're bored now so see ya later_.

Or as Russ put it so Dwayne could understand

_Adios Amigos _

"Come on guys lets listen to what he's saying" Charlie led us to the front of the bus where Buckley and Orion were engaged in an argument.

I hope Orion kicks Buckley's ass.

I must've had some form of weird expression on my face because Fulton threw am arm around me and whispered.

"Don't worry, even if I have to kidnap you to keep you here, I will"

Aw that was so sweet, I think.

"Um thanks?" I whispered back not sure of how to react. I didn't want to face the fact that we were going to be sent home. Argh, sent home to my mother.

NO WAY!

"Look at it this way Ted, you'll finally get to be able to pick your own team" Buckley was trying to make it sound appealing to the Coach.

And what Orion said next shocked us all.

"I have my team, now if they go, I go"

Wow, I never realised he cared about us so much.

I stole a glance at Charlie who was wide eyed but smiling at the same time. Orion had just won Conway over.

Orion deserves a medal for that small task alone!

"We'll miss you Ted" Buckley said before walking off.

"Is he for real?" Russ said angrily.

Orion looked pissed off.

"Can he do that Coach?" we all clambered out of the bus and Orion spun around surprised to see us there.

Dunno why though, you think he'd know by now that us Ducks like to eavesdrop on absolutely everything.

Averman started spouting some crap off about jesters to entertain the king's court or something like that until Russ very bluntly told him to shut up.

Thank God for Russ sometimes.

"Look team, we'll get to the bottom of this, right now we have a game to play, so lets go win and show the Board just how wrong they are about us, then we'll think of a brilliant defence for the meeting" Orion ordered us back onto the bus.

I just hoped Orion could help us with this one.

* * *

For the record, we won the game. It was like we had more motivation to win than ever before with the return of the Captain and knowing we were the target of the Alumni.

The only thing missing though was Banks.

We arrived back to Eden Hall and headed straight for Banks' classroom where we knew he would be studying without the prying eyes of his father.

"Banks! Did you hear?" Charlie burst into the room like he owned the place and scared poor Adam out of his mind.

"Whaaat!" Adam nearly dropped his text book.

We couldn't help but laugh, hey it was funny.

I didn't get to hear what Charlie said because before I knew it, I was being pulled out of the room and was dragged into the nearby janitors closet.

"Fulton what the fuck?" I asked when I finally got my bearings.

"Please Julie, I need to say this" he said sounding the most serious I've ever known him to be.

"Okay" I replied trying not to wince at the death grip he hand on my hand.

"I don't know if we're gonna be able to stay here and I don't want you to go back to Maine" he started.

"I don't want to go back either" I said softly.

"Just know that whatever happens Julie, I love you" he said and immediately looked down at his feet.

Even though it was kinda dark in the closet, I could tell he was blushing furiously.

Wait a second! Did he just tell me he loved me?

Whoah that's huge. I didn't know how I felt about him. Did I love him?

_Of course you do Julie _

But what about Scooter?

_What about Scooter? He's a Varsity goon and not your boyfriend. Fulton's a million times better than Scooter_.

True

"Are you gonna say something?" Fulton finally asked and I realised I hadn't even answered him back yet.

I answered him by placing my arms around his neck and initiating the biggest, most passionate kiss we'd ever shared. Hands were starting to wander everywhere, over our clothes of course, I'm not the kind of girl who does it in the janitor's closet for crying out loud.

"Wow" Fulton said when we finally pulled apart.

Yeah wow was right.

Its nice to have a little bit of 'wow' in the midst of the crappiest week of your life.

* * *

**okay so I didn't bother with a repeat of all the dialogue from the movie, we all know what it is anyway.**

**DONNA79 - I thought it was weird how they just dropped one of their main characters without a word in the movies too! Jesse was hilarious (especially in D1 when he was yelling at Bombay about selling drugs)**

**ELYSE BLACK - thanks for your support, I wasn't too happy with this chapter though, its getting really hard to finish this fic off now! But I'll persevere!**

**GHOSTWRITER - glad to see you back, thanks for your review!**

**Thanks for reviewing, they are appreciated!**


	17. Chapter 17

I felt like a mannequin on display dangling in front of hoards of people for their amusement.

No scrap that, I felt like a caged animal, trapped and aware that anyone could hurt me at any time. It wouldn't have surprised me if I had claws and started ripping people's throats out.

We were at the Board meeting, cornered off to the side whilst the rest of the room stood staring at us. Varsity were standing opposite us, all with a superior look on their faces, even Scooter. Riley kept whispering snide remarks to Scooter who would grin and nod like he was agreeing with everything he said. It didn't take a rocket scientist to work out that what he was saying was not something nice.

Why did I ever trust that douchebag?

Then we had the rest of the school population. No doubt they were all here to see us hanged. None of them had really bothered to be friendly to us since we'd arrived.

Then we had the stuck up, snooty Board Members who all acted like they were the most important person in the room. Much like my mother and her snotty friends back home.

Charlie stood next to Coach Orion. Those two seemed to be getting along rather well lately. I wonder if Bombay told Charlie about Orion's daughter?

I snapped to attention when Buckley called for a Board member to motion that we stay. Of course no one raised his or her hands.

Swarmy bastards!

"Well I guess you leave us no choice but to bring in our Attorney" Coach Orion looked smug.

Hey that wasn't part of the plan was it?

Hold on Jules, what plan? The guys didn't come up with anything last night.

"We have an Attorney?" Fulton whispered to me.

"I dunno, do we?" I whispered back.

I was just as confused as he was.

It should not have surprised me in the slightest when Coach Bombay breezed through the door with a briefcase in hand.

Dean Buckley and the rest of the Alumni were starting to look a little worried. Couldn't say I blamed them though, Charlie said Bombay had a reputation as a lawyer back in the old days.

So I did the only thing I could do. I threw a superior smirk at the now nervous Varsity team and resisted all urge to give Tom Riley the finger. I knew Bombay had a very good chance at getting us out of this mess.

I stole a glance at Coach Orion when Dean Buckley was asked to hold Bombay's briefcase whilst Bombay rummaged through it looking for a document. Orion looked impressed.

This had to be a good sign right?

I know we all complained about Eden Hall at one time or another but the fact that they didn't want us here and were doing everything in their power to turf us out made us all the more determined to stay.

Even if we didn't win, we could always chain ourselves to the gates or something couldn't we?

Hey now there's an idea!

I snapped out of my thoughts and started paying attention to what Bombay was saying.

He was talking about our Contracts being binding upon our signatures. He threw in some other fancy legal jargon to scare the Board members and then he stuck the knife in.

"I will collect damages, I will tie this thing up in Court until long after these kids have graduated. Why? Because I am that good. You know why I am so good? Because I had a good education. YOU gave it to me and you're gonna give it to these kids"

Nice one! I could see the blond lady sitting in front of me slump in her seat.

Does this mean that she's gonna bend?

I felt a familiar hand snake its way down my arm and entwine its fingers with mine.

I happened to look up in time to see a scowl cross Scooter's face as he stared at my hand entwined with Fulton's.

What the hell is his problem?

Ah who cares!!

The Dean then called for a member to move that our scholarships be reinstated. It was silent for a second before the blond lady raised her hand.

"I…..move that the scholarships be……reinstated" she sounded bored and reluctant. I was surprised that Bombay didn't ask her to say it like she meant it.

Score one for the Ducks!

Dean Buckley looked to the others.

"Do we have a second?" he asked.

The man next to the lady raised his hand. He didn't look happy at all.

"All in favour?" Dean Buckley prompted.

Every one of the Board members raised their hands, Tom Riley included.

"We have no choice" I heard someone say.

Sucked in, how does it feel to be backed in a corner?

I love winning!

"Scholarships re-instated!" Dean Buckley called out brightly.

Gee he sure changed his tune didn't he?

People were applauding and I rolled my eyes. You guys didn't care what happened to us yesterday so why do you care now?

Us Ducks congregated outside the room each greeting Bombay and thanking him.

I overheard him saying to Charlie that he had to take care of some business in Chicago but he'd be back soon.

Chicago huh? Could he be seeing Dean Portman by any chance?

I might just keep that thought to myself, no need to get Fulton and Connie's hopes up for nothing.

"Looks like you get to stay here with me after all Jules" Fulton grinned pulling me into his arms and kissing me softly.

"Lucky me" I replied smiling.

"Looks like someone's glad Charlie's staying" Fulton pointed to a preppy brunette girl who was smiling at Charlie and touching his arm.

I almost burst out laughing at the look on Connie's face. It was a mix of amusement, hilarity and annoyance. She looked like she didn't know whether to snap at this girl or laugh at Charlie for dating a prep.

Fortunately Dwayne engaged Connie in his conversation and the girl was momentarily forgotten.

"You Ducks still don't belong here, your fancy lawyer only kept you in on a technicality" the sneering voice of Rick Riley cut through the air like a laser.

Charlie glared at Rick.

Fulton and I joined the rest of the flock. The brunette girl was still at Charlie's side.

"This is still our school" Rick continued.

"It's not your school, its everyone's school you stupid jock" the brunette girl snapped.

Connie and I looked at each other, way to go brunette girl! She got our vote!

"No, this will never be your school" Rick got in her face but she held her own.

A few more words and insults were exchanged and then came the part we liked. The entire time I was giving Scooter the death glare.

"JV/Varsity showdown is next Friday, we're gonna kill you guys" Rick sneered.

"You had an unfair advantage last time, you had one of us, Banksie" Charlie kept his voice even. I knew what he was doing, he was baiting Rick into allowing us to have Banks back.

"Oh well keep him, he never had the heart of a Warrior anyway" Rick threw back pretending he didn't care.

Oh he cared alright, he knew that with the flock back together, we'd be stronger than ever.

"See you around losers" Cole threw in for good measure.

"Wait, one more thing Biff" Russ spoke up.

Uh-oh, was he gonna get us into more trouble?

"When we beat you, the Warriors die and the Ducks fly" he proposed his bet.

"Sure anything you say loser" Rick rolled his eyes and the Varsity team left.

"Nice one Russ make them even madder" Averman said slapping him on the shoulder.

"We can take them" Russ replied.

"You know what that means" Fulton prompted.

"Yeah, we gotta get to work" Charlie led us away from the meeting room.

* * *

**okay I know the dialogue is way off but you get the idea of the scene.**

**Xx3.BusyGrlsLifeX3.14 - thanks - I'm glad you liked it**

**galindapopular - yep he loves her, how could you not!**

**Elyse Black - thanks, glad you enjoyed it.**


	18. Chapter 18

Boy Charlie wasn't kidding when he said 'we gotta get to work'.

I honestly can't recall ever feeling so damn sore.

Wait! Yes I can, Captain Blood's reign over our practices was slightly worse than this, note I say 'slightly'.

Currently Fulton's standing behind me giving my shoulders a good rub. He's such a sweetheart and I know I have to return the favour soon but it feels so good.

"Is that making the pain go away?" he leant down and whispered in my ear. The sudden burst of his hot breath on my ear gave me the shivers, in the good way.

"A little, I'll repay the favour soon" I told him.

"No need, I'm enjoying doing you" he said and we both stopped dead.

I turned to look at him.

"I uh, didn't mean it …. Oh shit, I didn't mean it like that" he stammered with his face turning an extremely dark shade of red.

I couldn't help myself, I immediately started laughing.

"I know but that was pretty funny" I said between giggles.

"No it wasn't" he protested. That boy was too stubborn sometimes.

Personally, I think he enjoys arguing about stupid stuff because he likes the play fights.

"Yes it was" I replied forgetting all about my sore muscles. I was aching for some fun with him. And I'm talking about the clean kind, not the dirty kind.

"No it wasn't" he replied getting that mischievous look on his face.

So I poked him "Yes it was"

"That's it Catlady, I'm gonna have to get you for that" he grinned.

"You have to catch me first" I said pushing him back on the bed and running off out the door. I knew he'd come after me.

"You're gonna get it Gaffney!" I heard him yell and I started running faster.

I could hear his footsteps behind me.

"Are they at it again?" I heard Goldberg's voice ring out through the quad as I sprinted through yelling a quick 'Hi' to the team that were sitting there.

"Yep, here comes Fulton" I heard Connie say and I knew he was getting closer.

I rounded the corner and ran smack into a sea of red and white.

I couldn't help but groan when I saw who I'd run into.

"Hey Gaffney, long time no see, where are you off to in such a hurry?" Scooter asked.

I can't believe that son of a bitch is acting like nothing happened.

"None of your business" I said trying to push past him.

"Don't you have time for a friend Julie?" he asked grabbing my arm.

"You are NOT my friend, I saw your face in the meeting, you couldn't wait to get rid of us" I told him.

"Hey let my girlfriend go!" Fulton had appeared and didn't like what he was seeing.

"Sorry man, just trying to talk to a friend" Scooter let go of my arm.

God he's such a pathetic bastard when you think about it.

"I told you, you're not my friend" I told him and then grabbed Fulton's arm and stormed off.

"Stay away from her" Fulton warned over his shoulder.

"I'll try but I can't guarantee she'll stay away from me" Scooter really was naïve.

"Oh I'll guarantee I'll stay away from you" I yelled back.

We rounded the corner and Fulton was looking at me funny.

"What?" I finally asked when I couldn't stand the silence any longer.

"Why would he think you're his friend?" he asked softly, like he was almost afraid of the answer.

"Because we had one conversation" I replied not sure how to answer the question.

"About?" he enquired.

"A lot of stuff, school, hockey, you" I replied.

"Me?" he asked.

"He asked me if you were my boyfriend and I said 'yes'" I replied.

"I see" Fulton replied. It was obvious he wasn't sure about how he should feel about me talking to Scooter.

"Look Fult, he just wanted to prove that he wasn't like the other Varsity guys and that we could be friend but hey jokes on me, he's exactly like them" I told him.

"Okay" Fulton said. It was obvious the word lacked any kind of emotion.

"Okay?" I questioned. What the hell did that mean?

"Yeah, okay. I believe you" he said putting an arm around me.

"Thanks" I said not questioning it even further. I could tell he was still a little off about it.

We made our way back to the quad where the rest of the team were still congregated.

"I see you caught her Fulton" Averman laughed.

"No _Scooter_ caught her" Fulton replied and nobody missed the venomous way he said Scooter's name.

"Huh?" Charlie asked looking at me.

"Did he hurt you?" Connie piped up.

"No he just spouted some crap off about us being friends, I told him we weren't friends and then we walked away" I explained and stole a glance at the team.

Half were looking at me and the other half were looking at Fulton's stony expression.

"Save it for the showdown man" Charlie told his friend.

"Uh-huh" Fulton gave his dismissive agreement and continued to stare into space.

"Speaking of the showdown, did you look at the tapes Charlie?" Ken ever so thoughtfully got the subject off of Scooter.

"Yeah, I've come up with a few tactics to try out at practice" Charlie beamed obviously proud of his hard work. It was the same way we overcame the obstacle of the Iceland team during the Goodwill Games. You watch the tapes, study the opponents then study yourselves.

"Cool can't wait!" Adam spoke up.

All of a sudden Fulton dropped my hand. I turned to him in time to see him get up and walk off, ignoring the shouts of "Fulton" and "Where you going?"

Then all eyes turned towards me.

"God damn it" I cursed under my breath and I too stood up and followed him.

It appears that the time to have a talk about past events had come. Crap, and we were doing so well too.

* * *

**GALINDAPOPULAR - nah had no clue you were in a Josh fest (ha ha, sarcasm, I love your Dawson's Creek x-over story by the way), Yeah you'll hate Scooter more in this chapter.**

**Xx3.BusyGrlsLifeX3.14 - I haven't read your fic yet, at least I dont think I have, but I will when I get a chance. Don't worry about reviews too much. The email alert for reviews hasn't been working so you may have some but don't know it. I just check out my stats to get the current reviews when I post my new chapters. I like Charlie/Julie stories so I look forward to reading it.**

**ELYSE BLACK - yeah's she's completley tossed Scooter into the asshole pile now. Its her and Fulton all the way now (well we'll see after this chapter ;) )**

**thanks for your reviews!**


	19. Chapter 19

"Fulton" I called out to him.

He ignored me and kept walking.

"Fulton!" I tried again.

He still didn't stop.

"Fulton for fucks sake will you wait up!" I screamed as loud as possible and low and behold, he finally turned around.

"What?" he glared at me.

Oh boy, he was _really_ pissed off.

"What happened to 'okay' huh? You said you were fine" I challenged him.

"Yeah well I'm not" he replied.

"And you think I am?" I didn't mean to say it out loud but there it was. I guess it was time for us to have the all out talk about everything.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he cocked his head.

"What do you think it means Fulton, it means that every time someone pisses you off I get scared that you'll leave me again"

There! I'd said it.

"I didn't leave you" he replied in a quiet voice.

"Yes you did! You left the team which in case you forgot includes me to side with Charlie and then you disappeared for days, you didn't even bother to call me" I said feeling the pent up anger starting to release itself.

"I didn't side with Charlie, I did it because I couldn't face the Ducks being dead" he explained. It still didn't make it any better.

"It sure felt like it Fulton, all those times you blew me off for Charlie and I know about the fight you guys had with the team over the summer" I added the piece of info Connie told me about Fulton agreeing that the original D5 Ducks should be the ones who go to Eden.

"What?" he snapped.

Oh boy, this was gonna be a great fight, note the sarcasm.

"You heard me, did you forget that I was one of the Ducks you didn't want joining you at Eden Hall?" I snapped back.

"I didn't mean it like that!" he defended himself.

"Yeah? Well it sure felt like it" I was annoyed that he wasn't even apologising for the way he'd treated me.

"Well what about you?" he was turning the tables around on me now.

"What about me?" I couldn't believe he was actually doing this.

"You know, the whole 'run off to the Varsity goalie when my boyfriend's not around', how do you think that made _me _feel" Fulton exploded.

"Firstly you've just acknowledged that you weren't around, and secondly it was one freaking conversation and guess what? I told him you were my boyfriend during that one conversation. How clearer do I have to be before you get the point, I.AM.NOT.INTERESTED.IN.THE.VARSITY.GOALIE!" I screamed accentuating each word by pausing.

"Why are you yelling at me?" he yelled back.

"Because you're acting like an ass!" I told him.

I think by this stage we had an audience.

You know what, fuck it, I don't care. Let them see how mad the Cat gets.

I hope they all think I'm insane.

"So now I'm an ass?"

"I said you are ACTING like an ass. No wonder I'm yelling at you, you don't fucking listen to anything!" I was starting to become over this. We weren't getting anywhere at all.

"Hey I listen!" he protested.

"Yeah? Well listen to this one, Fuck this, I'm leaving" I said and stormed past him.

"Now you're the one who's leaving _me_ Julie" Fulton called after me.

"Why do I even bother?" I muttered under my breath.

I couldn't let him get the last word though.

"Another case of you not listening. I'm leaving the argument, not you, you idiot! We're getting nowhere" I said shooting him a glare and storming off towards my dorm room.

I could hear Charlie's voice in the background.

"What's up her butt?"

* * *

I was so mad by the time I reached my dorm that I slammed the door hard and screamed into my pillow as loudly as I could. Hey it was better than hitting someone right? 

I went over to my stereo and dug out the Rammstein CD from my collection. Yes I, Julie Gaffney, listen to German metal music. Fulton and Portman aren't the only ones you know.  
I pressed the skip button until my favourite song "Du Hast" came on (translation 'You Hate') and turned the volume right up.

I didn't hear anyone come in the door until I was tapped on the shoulder.

"You're gonna blow your hearing out Cat" the familiar voice whispered in my ear.

What the hell was _he _doing here.

"Does it look like I care right now?" I didn't bother looking at him.

I glared at the wall as he turned the volume down.

"I'm really sorry, I was being an ass and you were right, about everything" he came up behind me.

I was too stunned to speak. He'd actually apologised.

"Are you gonna say something? you can hit me if it'll make you forgive me!" he tried joking.

Damn it, I wasn't gonna cry.

"Do it again and I'll rip your balls off and feed them to Beef" I said referring to Connie's Staffordshire terrier whom she aptly named Beef, mainly because the dog was so stocky and muscly.

"I swear on everything I hold dear that I will never, EVER do anything like it again" Fulton even gave me the boy scout hand symbol.

"As if you were a boy scout" I couldn't help but laugh. The image of him in one of those uniforms was pretty funny.

"Fine, can I kiss you on it then?" he asked hopefully.

"If you must" I tried to sound non-committal but on the inside I was aching for us to be okay.

I'd fallen for him and I'd fallen hard.

Yep you heard it here first, I Julie Gaffney am in love with Fulton Reed.

Maybe I should tell him before word gets around!!

"I love you Fulton" I blurted out in between kisses.

He grinned and pulled me in closer so our foreheads were touching.

"Right back at ya Cat" he smiled happy that I'd actually said those words to him.

If I had've known this would be the reaction I got then I would have said it a long time ago.

* * *

**sorry, but that fight had to happen sooner or later, its not healthy to bottle it up!! **

**GALINDAPOPULAR - assface - I should've used that in the argument! so funny!! I was gonna make it Scooter who went to the dorm but thought Fulton would be better**

**ELYSE BLACK - what boyfriend wouldn't be jealous if they found out their girlfriend was talking to a rival, and didn't tell him about it! I think Fulton may be getting out of the asshole pile, but Scooter's definitely still in it!!**

**Xx3.BusyGrlsLifeX3.14 - I've read about half the first chapter of your fic but get interrupted every time, I will get around to reading it though, Scooter's just gonna keep getting worse I'm afraid.**

**Thanks to all who reviewed!**


	20. Chapter 20

The JV/Varsity Showdown was looming upon us and between the brutal practices we'd been having and the make up make out sessions Fulton and I had been having, I was exhausted.

Plus Scooter would not leave me alone.

"Hey Julie" he waved to me as he walked past with Rick and Cole.

"Drop dead ass face" I replied giving him the finger. Surprisingly Rick and Cole just laughed at their friend.

"I told you she was nothing but trash Scooter, you know better than this" Rick scolded and this time it was _my_ turn to laugh.

My family, and I use that term loosely, had more money than the entire population of Eden Hall combined.

I rolled my eyes and walked off the other way.

"Hey gorgeous" I smiled when I felt Fulton's arms wrap around my waist from behind.

I stopped and turned around to give him a quick kiss.

"Hey yourself" I grinned into his lips.

"You know I just don't get it, butch girls aren't supposed to get the hot guys, _we are_" we overheard a cheerleader comment to her friend as they walked past giving me the evil eye and Fulton the 'how you doin' eye.

"Listen to that babe, you're so hot!" I laughed.

"aw yeah, _I'm so hot for me, I'm so hot for me_" Fulton did this weird Homer Simpson dancing version of the Rolling Stones song "She's so Cold".

I couldn't help but crack up laughing.

"Nice moves there Fulton, don't quit your day job!" Russ approached us laughing as he slapped Fulton on the shoulder.

"Y'all Fulton doesn't have a day job, he's in school!" Dwayne declared and we all laughed harder.

By the time we were finished I had tears streaming down my cheeks.

"What's going on here? Oh my god Julie are you alright? What did you do to her you ass!" Connie had missed the entire debacle and was now leading me away from the group.

"Nothing happened, I was just laughing too hard. You missed Fulton dancing like an idiot!" I explained to her.

"Oh my god! I am so sorry! Fulton I'm sorry I called you an ass" Connie was mortified that she'd just called him names for no reason.

"Oh gee I dunno Connie, I might forgive you" Fulton was messing with her.

"You'd better or I'll….I'll…..I don't know what yet but it'll be painful!" Connie was having a hard time coming up with something.

The group laughed again.

This was the feeling we were hoping to get back.

"Hey guys, check out Luis!" Ken had also joined our little hallway congregation.

We all turned to see the Latin Speedster in a lip lock with Rick Riley's girlfriend.

"Oh my this is gold!" Guy and Charlie had arrived just in time to see what Luis was up to.

"I wonder where Rick is?" Connie looked around the halls for any sign of Rick Riley.

"He went that way about ten minutes ago with Cole and Scooter, apparently I'm trash, how laughable!" I laughed. I didn't really care what any of the Varsity thought of me.

"He's a jerk, who cares what he thinks!" Connie stood up for me and Fulton slung an arm around me even tighter.

"Hey guys!" Luis had finished his little macking session and had now joined us.

"Luis, sweetie, you've got a little gloss right….." Connie leant into him to make him think she was gonna kiss him. Luis looked quite thrilled by this and then she softly slapped his cheek "there!" she finished.

"Thanks Cons" Luis replied dryly.

"You're welcome dear" she replied sweetly.

"I have a question for you" Averman asked Luis.

"Go ahead" Luis looked a little worried.

"Aren't you afraid Riley will find you with his girlfriend and I dunno, like kill you?" Averman's voice was barely a whisper.

"Ah let him, I don't care, Mindy's hot" Luis replied with a grin and Connie and I just rolled our eyes.

"Okay then" Averman was satisfied with the answer.

"I'll see you guys later at practice then" Connie said as the bell rang and we all went our separate ways. This was to be our last practice before the showdown.

"Bye"

Fulton gave me one last kiss before he headed off to his class with Charlie.

"I'm not looking forward to today's practice" Adam confided as we walked down the hallway.

I stared at him as if he'd just sprouted a second head with horns and a tail. Adam Banks was not looking forward to hockey practice? What was the world coming to?

"Why?" I asked him when I managed to speak.

"Cos its gonna be even harder, being our last practice and all before the showdown" Adam replied simply.

Since when was he afraid of hard work?

"I just don't want Charlie flipping out again that's all, Orion seems to push all of his buttons at once" Adam explained seeing my disbelieved expression.

"Fair enough" I replied.

We made it to our classroom and unfortunately for me, Scooter happened to be walking past.

"Hey Banks, looking good Gaffney" he whistled.

"You're gonna look even better with my foot up your ass if you don't leave me the hell alone!" I yelled at him.

"Language Miss Gaffney" my teacher, Mr Kerrigan, had busted me.

"And Mr Vanderbilt, please respect Miss Gaffney's wishes to leave her alone, I suspect her foot up your backside would hurt a great deal" Mr Kerrigan continued and Adam and I stifled giggles as Scooter turned bright red.

"Yes sir" Scooter said before shuffling off.

"Julie, don't let me hear you using such profanity again, you're above it. Now get into my classroom and sit down, you too Mr Banks" I was surprised he didn't give me detention.

"Yes sir" Adam and I obeyed orders.

* * *

"Alright team this is your last practice" Coach Orion stood in the middle of the ice holding a trash can. We knew what was coming.

"And its time to take out the trash!" Averman yelled enthusiastically.

"Well yes, but not yet" Orion scolded. He couldn't really yell at him since he was correct.

"JV/Varsity showdown is in two days, this is your last practice. I'm proud of all the work you've done so far, you should congratulate yourselves. However, having said that it doesn't mean you can slack off. Varsity have rubbed your faces in the ice once already, don't let them do it again"

He finished his little speech and as usual, emptied the contents of the trash can out onto the ice.

"Gaffney! Get in goal" he barked and I skated over to the goal.

"Same teams as last practice, Averman you are on Banks' team, lets go!" Orion answered Averman's question before he'd even asked it.

"YES COACH ORION SIR!" Averman screamed.

We picked up where we left off from last practice and I had to admit we were rapidly improving. I still had to block shots but not half as many as I had to the first time we did this. It was great, I wasn't getting so tired anymore.

About twenty minutes before we were due to leave Orion stopped the practice and ordered us over to him.

"Now! Get over here!" he screamed again and we scrambled to take a knee in front of him. Each of us glanced at the box he had next to him wondering what kind of torture devices he had in there.

"You guys are not skating like Warriors" he yelled.

I leaned into Fulton feeling defeated. I honestly thought we were getting somewhere with all of this training.

"You look like something else" his voice softened.

We all looked at each other in curiosity. What the hell was Coach Orion smoking?

"You look like Ducks" he said as he produced Dwayne's Ducks jersey from the box.

"Robertson!" he threw Dwayne's jersey to Dwayne. We all scrambled to retrieve our own.

I look at Fulton and he was beaming.

The Ducks were back!

* * *

**woo-hoo they got their jerseys back!! I think the next chapter will be the last one and this little 'trilogy' of sorts is finally finished!**

**DONNA79 - I figured there'd been too much ignoring and bottling up so they needed a massive argument! We can't all be perfect (and I know I've been involved in some ripper fights in my time - ha that makes me sound so old!)**

**GALINDAPOPULAR - Credit goes to you, I used the word "ass face" in this fic! Its my new favourite insult now!**

**Xx3.BusyGrlsLifeX3.14 - Scooter's still being a pain in the ass, don't forget we've got the little kiss on the cheek thing after the game (I might change it a little though). Thanks for the review.**

**THANKS EVERYONE WHO REVIEWED!**


	21. Chapter 21

Today's the day where we either come out the other side as heroes or as losers and back to where we started.

That's right, it was the day of the JV/Varsity Showdown.

Personally I was panicking. I know our skills had improved drastically but the sight of Varsity handing our asses to us a few weeks ago was still fresh in my mind and now, because of Goldberg hogging the net, I have no idea whether I can handle them or not.

_Relax Julie, you'll be fine_

Its much easier to tell myself that than it is to feel it.

"Hey guys Jesse called, passed on a good luck for tonight" Charlie called to Fulton and I as he passed us in the hallway.

"You're gonna need it" some random kid walking behind Charlie muttered.

"Nice to know we have the school population on our side" Fulton commented sarcastically.

"Oh yes Eden Hall just _luuurves_ us" Averman and Connie had joined us.

Connie looked a little anxious.

"Fulton do you know where Portman is?" she asked looking nervous.

"Last time I checked, Chicago" Fulton looked confused.

"He's not there, I called this morning cos I was in a panic and he seems to be the only one who can calm me down and his mom said he was away on some kind of school trip but she wouldn't tell me where and now I'm worried that something bad has happened" she was starting to scare me, this wasn't the Connie we knew and loved.

"Sweetie, Portman's a tough guy, he'll be fine and maybe he went across to California to see his brother, you know the one that no one in the family aside from Portman speaks to anymore and maybe that's why his mom didn't mention where" Fulton explained.

"Yeah maybe" Connie muttered.

"So why were you panicking?" Averman asked brightly.

Boy that kid was so nosy.

"Why do you think? We have possibly the hugest game of our lives _tonight_ and we're probably gonna get killed!" Connie threw her hands up in the air and stormed off.

"Sorry I asked" Averman stared after her.

"We're so not gonna get killed, we're gonna do the killing!" Luis had arrived during Connie's outburst and was trying to get our spirits up for the game.

"Uh-huh" I replied not feeling at all convinced.

Thank god the bell rang just as he was about to reprimand me for being so unenthusiastic.

"Gotta go, see yas later" I said giving Fulton a kiss on the cheek and hurrying towards my classroom. I wasn't in the mood to talk about the showdown, to be completely honest I was sick to death of hearing about it.

Have you ever walked into a room and realised that people were just talking about you? You know that feeling you get when it goes silent all of a sudden and people start staring at you? Well that's how I'm feeling right now, the entire class fell quiet and were all looking at me now.

"They're gonna get their asses kicked" I heard one student whisper.

Will they just get over it?

I rolled my eyes and found my seat, this had to be the one class in my entire schedule that I was by myself in.

By lunchtime, everyone was completely stressing out so we decided to forego the cafeteria and have our lunch outside.

"This is driving me nuts!" Charlie complained. Linda was trying to look sympathetic but you could easily tell she was starting to become annoyed at Charlie's complaining. Kudos to her for lasting this long!

Connie was no better, her incessant dribbling about where the hell Portman could be was driving the entire team crazy.

Yeah bullshit she didn't have a thing for him!

"Connie just shut up! You'll find out when he wants to you find out!" Guy had exploded.

"You want some Guy?" Connie stood up and puffed her chest out just looking for a fight.

"WILL YOU BOTH SHUT UP! YOU'RE ALL DRIVING ME INSANE!" the usually quiet and reserved Adam screamed at us.

We all immediately clammed up and watched in awe as Banks went from screaming lunatic to his usual calm manner as he unwrapped his sandwich as if nothing had happened.  
Even Linda was looking bewildered.

We all took a leaf out of Adam's book and began to eat our lunch. I guess Fulton wasn't satisfied with his own sandwich so he leant across and took a big bite out of mine.

"Hey!" I protested seeing that his bite had consumed nearly a quarter of it.

Fulton flashed me a grin but unfortunately he hadn't quite finished swallowing his mouthful and also presented us with a glob of chewed up bread, ham and salad.

"Ew Fulton, we want the news not the weather" Connie retorted before I could.

"Sorry" he grinned sheepishly. At least he had the sense to finish chewing and swallowing before answering.

"You know I'm having trouble picturing Fulton in one of those ugly newscaster's suits, or those weird weatherman ones for that matter" Averman laughed and for once, his joke was pretty funny and the entire team, plus Linda started laughing.

"You guys don't actually think you're gonna win tonight do you?" the voice of the enemy broke into our 'happy time'. We groaned and looked up to see Varsity looming over us.

"So what if we do?" Ken retorted. Wow, he's grown some balls lately!

"Then our victory is gonna be even sweeter" Riley smirked.

"Yeah, if you define 'victory' as getting your ass kicked!" Connie spoke up.

"I've put you flat on your very nice ass on the ice before Moreau, I can do it again" Rick said calmly.

Connie shot up and Fulton, Dwayne and Charlie had to be very quick to stop her from lashing out at Riley and getting herself into any trouble.

"Ooo, I'll be looking forward to having a piece of that later" Riley laughed to his teammates and they all joined in, even that asshole Scooter.

"You wish asshole" Connie was fuming. I suddenly did wish that Portman was here for two reasons. The first being to calm her down and the second to pound the entire team with Fulton.

"We'll see about that sweetheart" he grinned.

"Enjoy your last hours of freedom, cos when we're done with you, you wont have any left" Cole retorted as the team strode away.

"What does he think he's gonna do, put us in jail?" Russ scoffed. Cole had the lamest comebacks I've ever heard.

"Who knows but they've just made one very valuable mistake!" I spoke up.

They all turned to face me.

"We play way better when we know we're the underdog, just ask Iceland about their 'guaranteed triumph'" I replied imitating Coach Stansson's voice at the 'guaranteed triumph' part. That guy was a real idiot to think he could beat us so easily.

"YEAH!" Averman screamed and waved his arms around.

We all stared at him before cracking up laughing.

Laughter was good, it was real good at a time like this.

We were almost convinced we could beat Varsity now, if we put our minds to it that is.

* * *

**okay, I've finally been able to update!! One more chapter to go and I think we're done (I probably said that earlier but I've managed to get it to go to two)**

**GALINDAPOPULAR - yes Scooter is being the hugest assface right now, I'm planning on changing Julie's reaction to his little kiss on the cheek thing (it is fanfiction afterall!!)**

**FOOTYCHICK - thanks for your review**

**GAFFNEY06 - thanks for your review**

**Xx3.BUSYGRLSLIFEX3.14 - maybe that's what might happen!! or maybe not, you'll have to wait and see!!**

**LUNAR KASUMI - I had no idea anon reviews were even disabled, sorry about that. Glad you liked the stories and thanks for your review.**

**Thanks to all who reviewed.**


	22. Chapter 22

Our newfound confidence soon turned into sheer terror the moment we entered the locker room. Oh well at least there weren't any nasty messages written with shaving cream this time.

We were all silent as we pulled our gear on, each of us lost in our own little world of pre-game preparation. It was an amazing sight really considering we were one of the loudest groups to ever hit Eden Hall, just ask Dean Buckley, or Coach Orion!

Speaking of Coach Orion he entered the locker room and the door closed behind him with a bang.

"Team!" he hollered getting everyone's attention.

We all looked at him, ready and patient for him to give us instruction.

"Look, I know how badly you want to beat Varsity, but you know what, win or lose, I'm still proud of how hard you've worked" Orion started.

"But don't take that as your cue to slack off!" he added with a slight smirk. If you blinked then you'd miss it.

"Yes sir!" Averman screamed. Of course he would have to answer when he wasn't asked to. Oh well, I guess it provided a little light comedic relief for the moment.

"Now get your freshman backsides out there and kick some varsity ass!" Coach Orion screamed and we got fired up.

"Orion said 'ass'!" Russ pointed out gleefully and Charlie giggled like a girl. Some things never change!

"Good luck Luis" we were a little stunned to see that Rick's girlfriend, Mindy had decided to hang around outside our locker room to wish our Latin Speedster luck.

Oh boy he's gonna get his ass kicked with this one.

Fulton came up behind me and threw an arm around my heavily padded shoulders.

"I just wanted to give you this for luck" he said dangling his favourite bandana in front of my face.

Well waddya know, the Bash Brother actually washes his bandanas! Good boy Fulton!

"Thanks" I said smiling as I allowed him to tie it around my head.

"Here you can wear this if you want" I said taking my lucky ring from a chain around my neck and placing it around his.

"Are you sure?" Fulton asked me. He knew how much it meant to me.

"Positive" I replied.

"I love you" he said giving me a quick kiss on the lips.

"Love you too" I grinned returning the kiss.

"Come on guys they're calling us out to the ice!" Connie interrupted us.

"Coming" we broke apart and followed her out there.

Charlie stopped us before we hit the ice.

"This is for Hans" he said solemnly.

We all nodded our heads in agreement. We owed it to Hans to win this thing.

I just wished he'd be around to tell us well done in his special way.

We skated out onto the ice our faces set in stone as we skated in a circle and touched the ice.

I threw my helmet to the side before doing this because I knew I would fall flat on my face if I tried it with it on.

It was the Norwegian symbol of respect and what Bombay had said at Hans' funeral had stuck with us.

_Every time you touch the ice, remember it was Hans who taught us how to fly_

I felt a weight on my shoulder and realised it was Fulton gently guiding me to the bench where we faced a nervous looking Coach Orion. He had a lot riding on this game too. He'd gone out on a limb for us and we had to repay him by winning.

I stole a glance at Varsity's bench and felt my blood boil when I saw Scooter wink at me.

_You're going down asshole!_

"Okay team gather around' Orion called us into a huddle.

"Ready, 'quack' on three" he grinned at us relishing the look of each of our faces.

_Quack attack is back Jack!_

Damn you Averman, now your one liners are in _my _head.

"QUACK! QUACK! QUACK! QUACK!" we happily chanted getting more and more excited as part of the crowd started chanting too.

"GOOOOOOOOO DUCKS!" we finished our chant.

Man it felt good to be a flock again.

"Come on guys lets do this!" Connie screamed as she took up her position.

I did my usual ritual of hitting my stick on both sides of the goal and adopting my attack stance. Nothing or no one was going to get past me today.

They had not faced Julie Gaffney yet and I was about to make them wish they'd never been born.

* * *

"Uh I'm beat!" Goldberg collapsed on the bench after the end of the second period. Varsity were tough and we were just managing to hang in there.

"Alright Jules, way to show them we're not gonna let them score!" Charlie high fived me but because we were so sore and sweaty it was more like a collapsing of our hands against each other than an enthusiastic slap.

"Yeah go Julie!" Connie tried her hardest to smile. She was getting pummelled out there on the ice and she was too proud to complain.

I must admit, I was damn proud of that girl. She was showing those goons that she was not one to be messed with.

"How are you feeling Guy?" Adam asked softly. Guy had been knocked down quite hard and had to be helped off the ice.

"I'm not seeing stars anymore so I think I'll be okay" Guy stole a sideways glance at Connie and she kept her eyes staring straight ahead.

I knew what he was thinking. It was the first serious injury he'd received since they broke up and she wasn't there to fuss and fawn over him and it gave his pride a little beating.

"Okay team you're doing great, you're really holding your own out there" Coach Orion burst through the doors looking a little tired but still proud of us nonetheless.

"Yeah right, at this rate it'll take a miracle for us to hold on" someone remarked sarcastically.

It was like time stood still for those few seconds it took for us to realise who the owner of the voice that spoke the next sentence was.

"Dean Portman has been awarded a full scholarship to Eden Hall Academy"

The lost Bash Brother was standing in front of us, reading from his scholarship offer with a smirk on his face.

We were dumbfounded.

"I had this lying around the house in Chicago, my Attorney thought I should sign it. Its official boys, I'M BACK!" he screamed and we'd all realised what was happening by that time.

Our miracle had arrived!

We all rushed him engaging in a massive group hug.

Well all of us except Connie who stood glaring at him.

"Uh oh, the Bashman is in trouble!" Averman pushed his glassed back up his face when the hug had ended.

"Hey babe!" Portman grinned sheepishly.

Fulton and I smiled at each other and Fulton placed his arm around my shoulder.

"Don't you 'hey babe' me, where the hell have you been?" Connie scolded.

"On my way to see you dear" Portman was still grinning cheekily.

"Well open a can of hurry the fuck up and help us win this thing!" she poked him in the shoulder and pushed him towards a spare locker.

"Yes dear" Portman grinned and complied.

"Damn I was hoping for bloodshed" Adam commented to Charlie who laughed.

"You're demented Cake-Eater" Charlie replied.

It didn't take long for Portman to finish changing and for Connie to chew him out again for ditching us.

"So how long are you staying this time?" she asked once she'd calmed down slightly.

"For good Moreau" Portman replied.

"You'd better!" she said finally giving him the welcome back hug he'd been looking for.

"Ten bucks says those two get together by the end of the week" Luis nudged Russ.

"Screw that man, by the end of the game" Russ replied and they shook on it.

"Come on guys we have a game to win!" Charlie got us fired up again and we headed back onto the ice fully recharged.

* * *

The third period was a bitch. Varsity had obviously recharged their batteries too as they were coming in hard and fast.

The best part was Portman throwing Cole through the Perspex glass wall on the first face off.

"Way to show him Portman!" Connie was on the bench screaming her guts out. That girl had it bad.

The ref later made the mistake on calling Portman up on a tripping penalty when it was Rick who actually dived. I recognised the glint in his eye. Oh shit, we were in trouble now.

"Fine! You wanna see a penalty I'll show you a real penalty!" he said as he stepping into the box and started going crazy.

"What the hell is he doing?" I asked Fulton who was shaking his head laughing as Portman stripped his gloves off, then the jersey, then his padding.

We all thought he'd stop at his undershirt but we were sorely mistaken and a little horrified when we saw that being peeled off his sweaty torso and he flung it into the crowd.

"Oh my god" Connie came skating up next to me with her eyes transfixed on the muscular torso that was now dancing around in the penalty box.

"He is an idiot!" Fulton was almost wetting himself with laughter.

"Yeah but a sexy idiot" Connie blurted out before immediately covering her mouth.

"If you want to live to see tomorrow you do NOT tell him I said that" she threatened then skated away.

Fulton and I both laughed at her. I had a feeling we were going to be in for an interesting time with those two.

The spectacle finally died down and Portman managed to get his equipment back from several women in the crowd (some even made him kiss them on the cheek to get certain items back, I thought Connie was gonna spontaneously combust on the spot).

"Come on guys lets finish this" Charlie again had his mind on hockey. It was usually a good thing.

The game started up again and it was once again ruthless. I'm gonna have to ice my butt tomorrow for hours.

Then to make matters worse we got picked up on a stupid call because Ken jumped the gun a little early and Coach Wilson immediately jumped on the 'too many men'.

Um hello? We have two girls on this team you know!

"Okay, okay, Mendoza get on the bench. Wu go to the box" Orion screamed.

Play started up again with only a few players on the ice.

"Shit!" I exclaimed as I got tripped in front of the net and saw the rebound heading straight towards Riley's stick.

Damn it, gotta get back to the open net.

I almost tore myself in half trying to get there but thankfully Adam saved the day by jumping in front of the puck and stopping it with his chest.

"Thanks Banks" I said gratefully.

"No problem Catlady" Adam said before he sped off towards centre ice.

Before I knew what was happening, we were back on the ice with only Charlie, Adam, _Goldberg_ and myself in goal.

Shit now we were definitely gonna have our asses handed to us.

To cut the long story short, Charlie made it on a breakaway with Goldberg right behind him, Charlie faked Scooter right out of his pads and passed the puck to Goldberg who probably soiled his underpants before actually taking a shot and scoring.

Goldberg was the only player to score which meant one thing.

WE WON!

"Oh my god!" Adam and I screamed from the other end of the ice and hugged each other.

We'd done it, we'd beaten Varsity!

Adam skated off ahead of me to catch up with the rest of the team. I was a little slower due to all of the padding.

I was stopped by Scooter who was grinning like an idiot.

"Great game Gaffney" he said and kissed me on the cheek.

"In the name of good sportsmanship I guess I'll say thanks. But in the name of Julie Gaffney" I grinned back as I pushed him down to the ice.

"I'll say kiss my ass Vanderbilt and don't ever touch me again" I glared at him before storming off to find Fulton.

"What was that about?" Fulton asked as he enveloped me in a hug.

"Just reminding him that I'm with you" I said accepting the kiss he was offering.

"That's my girl" he laughed obviously feeling satisfied that Scooter was no longer a threat to our relationship, not that he ever was really.

"Julie the Cat! I knew you'd be our starting goalie one day!" Portman grinned giving me a hug.

"Thanks Dean, I can't believe Goldberg just won the game for us though!" I was in awe that Goldberg had scored not only the only goal of the game but also the winning goal.

"Yeah I know!" he laughed and gave us a wink before grabbing Connie from behind and spinning her around.

"Hey look what Bombay did!" our attention was drawn to the Warrior emblem on the wall where a Ducks flag had just been dropped down over the top.

"Woo hoo Eden Hall Ducks!" Adam grinned. He was as bad as Charlie when it came to the Ducks.

Speaking of Charlie, he was a little, um, busy to say the least. Okay he was currently making out with that Linda girl in front of his mom!

"Aw Cake-Eater's gonna cry" Connie teased good naturedly.

"I am not!" Adam protested but with the newly reunited Connie/Portman team, he had no hope in hell.

"Come on guys lets go celebrate, free shakes at Mickeys!" Casey Conway offered us her congratulations. That woman was so adorable. It's a pity that more of Casey hadn't rubbed off on Charlie yet.

"YEAH!" we screamed finally leaving the commotion on the ice.

"Did you see Riley's face when he caught Luis with his girlfriend, priceless!" Russ laughed as we walked along the streets of Minneapolis still on a high from our win.

"I know, so dude what are the cheerleaders like here?" Portman asked slyly and Connie rolled her eyes.

"Nice man, real nice!" Luis grinned and we all knew he wasn't talking about their personalities.

We all laughed and I snuggled further into Fulton as we walked for extra warmth.

"Guys this is so surreal I mean, WE WON! We beat Varsity!" Adam was in disbelief over what had just happened and was currently dancing around us shouting at random intervals 'we won' and 'holy crap, we just won'

"Get used to it Banks, the Ducks are back together and we're gonna just keep on winning!" Charlie spoke up cockily but the rest of us agreed. Hey we deserved to be a little up ourselves after that game.

"Yeah look out Eden Hall, the REAL Mighty Ducks have arrived!" Fulton spoke up with a giant grin.

"Yeah, the Bash Brothers have arrived too!" Portman laughed.

"Nothing's gonna stop us now" Charlie said happily throwing his arms around Averman and Goldberg.

"Ducks Fly Together!" we all chorused linking arms.

I hoped that statement would stay true forever.

* * *

**whoah, finally finished! I changed the whole Scooter kissing Julie scene to fit this fic (hey well its called fanFICTION you know!!) I also didn't bother re-telling the entire game, we all know what happens!**

**GALINDAPOPULAR - I always thought the whole premise of the movies was that the underdog always wins (cos the Hawks were the best and the Ducks won, Iceland were the best but the Ducks won, and now Varsity (who were supposedly better than Iceland - errr then how come they weren't at the Goodwill Games then?) were the best and low and behold! the Ducks won! But thanks for your constant reviews and support, you're amazing!**

**Xx3.BusyGrlsLifeX3.14 - thanks for the review but don't put your story down, just keep working on it, you never know you may just surprise yourself. **

**ELYSE BLACK - I know how that feels, I can't find my D3 DVD either (I went to just buy a new one but guess what? They're all sold out - of course!!) Thanks for your reviews!**


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